


Rise of the Silver Hurricane

by Roci_Stone



Series: Eliotropes: New Age Rising [2]
Category: Wakfu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:00:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 52
Words: 203,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27821128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roci_Stone/pseuds/Roci_Stone
Summary: A unique boy lost both at sea and in life. A storm beyond any in living memory washes him up on the shores of The Great White City, where an unknown brother and his destiny await. Can they discover a shared destiny in the face of a vile threat from the buccaneers that the boy with the silver hair once called his family?
Series: Eliotropes: New Age Rising [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2018062
Kudos: 1





	1. The Storm at Sea

Shareef awoke with a start. Sleeping in a hammock as close as he could get to the bow made Shareef almost as much a part of the ship as her main mast. The gentle nature of the rolling forward motion changed as a ripple of stronger current shoved hard against the forward hull from the opposite quarter. The change in sensation set Shareef off as if his hammock was strung on cat's whiskers, rather than stout lines of heavy rope.  
The strange feeling that swept over him made him rise from his hanging canvas bed as quickly as if the first mate had called general quarters.

His first reflex was to look just slightly up and forward where a small hatch in the forepeak of the ship was always open, to bring fresh air into the crew's quarters below decks.  
The narrow beam of light coming down through the hatch and onto the darker deck was clear and bright. And it took only the slightest lift of his chin to make out a fine clear blue strip of sky, with bits of white cotton floating along on a freshening breeze.

So it wasn't foul weather that had wakened him. Yet, as Shareef's bare feet touched the wooden deck, he could still sense the smallest difference imaginable in the living energy which flowed through the deck beneath his toes. He quickly wiped his feet on the rough mat which lay on the deck where he stood. 

He was awake this day, and ahead of the game, for no one had yet called his name in wrathful tones, or with the sneering contempt that usually accompanied the way some of the lowliest of the crew addressed a servant.  
So he quickly slid on his thong like leather sandals, and paused as he always did to adjust his unique white linen keffiyeh which was tightly banded around his forehead. This he did each and every morning without fail, as if there was a small mirror nailed to the barrel of dried fish that was the center of his berth.

There wasn't much of a dress code aboard the Gypsy Star, and nobody much cared what the cabin boy chose to wear. But each and every morning, for as long as he wanted to remember, his keffiyeh had to be absolutely perfect. The long tight linen wrap was held in place across his high forehead and over the top of his head by a double circlet of black cord, which seemed to be made for his head alone.  
The slightest adjustment took only a moment to perform, and then Shareef was ready for another day on deck.  
Satisfied for the moment, Shareef squeezed nimbly between a pair of barrels, headed forward toward the forepeak of the ship. 

Shareef's diminutive size made him the only one who could use a unique way to get up on deck as quickly as he was expected up top. The single open hatch in the deck above was actually part of another compartment within the ship. The smallest cargo space aboard, this place was better organized and cleaner than most, and with good reason. If the ship's company faced any sort of an emergency, this was the small compartment where the medical supplies were stowed. 

There was a sturdy three-step ladder, the ship smallest companionway, which led to a hatch in the deck almost too small for Shareef to get his broad shoulders above decks. Yet, he seemed to possess an almost feline method of folding his body so it would fit into the tightest spaces. Passage up to the deck was both easy and familiar in the calm and steady season of the morning.

No sooner had Shareef gone to the railing to look out upon the water and to satisfy nature, than another large shadow not cast by the mainmast fell across his own.

"Top of the morning to you lad!" Came a familiar gruff voice.

Shareef had barely finished and retied his own rope belt, before he turned in the direction of the voice, snapping into his best salute smartly as he did so.

"Good morning, Captain Soames, Sir!" Shareef answered up fast. "She looks to be a fair morning, sir." Shareef offered up in a genial tone.

“That it does, my lad. That it does. But tell me, how did she feel to you this morning when you set feet to her deck?” Captain Soames asked, with an inquisitive eye toward the company's most junior shipmate.

"She shuddered Sir, as if there was a cross in the currents." Shareef responded honestly, just as the captain expected each and every morning when they met.

"So you felt it, as well as I did." Soames replied. "Don't be taken in by the calm of the morning, Shareef. The sea will always tell you her intention, if you have a mind to listen." Soames replied casually standing at the railing next to Shareef.

"I'd say we're running into heavy weather, so set your morning watch as normal, until the forenoon, then after lunch, make all preparations below for a storm." Captain Soames ordered, without any change in his voice, nor any note of panic or urgency which might scare Shareef or any of the other ships company.

"Aye-aye, Sir!" Shareef replied, in an equal formalized calm. "What would be the captain's pleasure for breakfast this morning?" Sharif asked in a friendly and familiar tone.

"Hoe cakes, butter, and just a touch of rum, lad." 

Soames replied without missing a beat. That same order had come every morning of nearly twenty score days at sea. "But mind that you steer clear of any drink other than water. We may need you tonight, come the worst, and no amount of rum will proof you against the sea, despite what some in the crew may tell you." Soames replied.

The captain's concern was touching, in a sense. Shareef could not and would not consume alcohol of any kind, and both he and Soames knew this to be true. But wrapped in the captains small homily, there was a complement pointed directly at Shareef.  
In spite of being the youngest of the ship's company, Soames had an outsized respect for Shareef, in spite of his strange dress, so different from anyone else aboard ship. But it wasn't clothing that made a good hand, or even a wise cabin boy. Shareef was always both clear-eyed and clear headed. He had the unusual ability to think clearly and then act the same way in an emergency. There were tens of more senior crew aboard for the voyage that had not mastered the same skill after twenty years at sea.

"That'll be all, thank you, Seaman Shareef, and a fine day to you, I say." Captain Soames added before turning away from the rail, and heading back toward his cabin, two decks below, and in the after part of the ship.

Shareef paused before he turned away from the ship's rail, having been given his orders for the day. The sky seemed clean enough and bright enough to be a sky-blue mirror. But Shareef had sailed a long time and a long way under Captain Soames. He knew better than to doubt the old sea dog's prognostication. If Soames felt a storm coming, a storm there would be, and there'd be nothing light about it either.  
For the moment, Shareef couldn't worry about that. If the captain didn't get his breakfast, the storm at sea would come much sooner, and with even greater fury than a typhoon.  
So Shareef made a quick double time step toward the small square opening in the deck just a few feet away. This was something else he done on countless mornings, so the action now came a smoothly to him as drawing a deep breath of the clear morning air. Shareef simply folded his arms across his chest, and twisted his body to narrow his shoulders before dropping through the hole in the deck as if it was the most natural thing in the world for him to simply disappear from sight.

Shareef head prepared Hoe cakes for the captain and the crew on very nearly a year of mornings, both at sea and import. Whenever the flower and baking powder could be had, the flat sweet cakes were as popular with Captain as with her crew. Soames had his choice every morning, of any morsel of food aboard ship.  
But for the crew, and their own good, Shareef had the latitude to very the morning menus so as to keep the crew both healthy and well fed.

But like most things aboard ship, the captain's will came first. 

The hoe cake batter seemed to come together by itself, as Shareef turned off his brain for a moment, and let his reflexes accomplish the cooking. In what seemed fewer than five minutes the main part of the captain's breakfast was cooling on one of the rare bone china plates which were part of the ship's formal tableware.  
But the last part of the captain's request for breakfast required Shareef to refocus his thinking mind, and return it to the small galley which was his own unique part of their seagoing home.  
The captain of the vessel didn't drink from any of the common glassware, nor any of the ubiquitous mugs which served up water, or anything else barely drinkable to the ship's company.

Captain Soames had a unique silver mug, barely the size of a polite teacup. But it was solid silver, inlaid with the sparkle of gold. It was a treasure aboard a ship full of treasure seekers. It was also one of the small appointments of civility that made a long life at sea, where very little stayed formal for long, a bit more bearable. 

The special cup was exactly big enough to hold a double measure of the ship's fine sugar cane rum, which was fermented in a special cask captain the unique rack in the most secure corner of the galley. Exactly once a day for nearly four hundred days, Shareef, and Shareef alone, had been allowed to remove the special cord from the spigot, and turn the tiny faucet exactly one quarter turn, dispensing a slow flow of clear liquid into the unique silver cup. Soames himself was not a drinking man, for there were greater quantities of the rougher more fiery alcoholic beverages concocted by men at sea. But Soames only indulgence was this daily double measure of sugar cane rum. Shareef had always suspected that it was refined medicine, set aside for a man who had obviously led a bruising life at sea. Shareef had never seen Soames intoxicated, nor taken away from his senses by any form of drink. So this was not indulgence, as much as it was a rough but familiar medicine, dispensed by a familiar silver doctor, where no medical help was to be had so far out at sea.  
Preparing all of it, first thing in the morning had become for Shareef as much a complement to the captain's restraint, as to his seafaring command skill.  
As Shareef relaxed, and let everything flow, the captain's breakfast, the main course, the silver cup and the Bone China plate seemed to flow like a single wave onto unique ebony wood tray. After a moment, Shareef was walking almost mechanically from the galley, which was placed near the center of the ship toward the aft of the Gypsy star, where one single cabin took up two decks worth of space in the rear of the ship.

The captain's cabin was divided in two by the deck and a broader spiral set of stairs that led both up and down between the two rooms one on top of the other. The topmost room at the rear of the main deck was the captain's working cabin where Soames spend most of his day leaning far over charts with compass and triangle. It was here that the course and speed of the voyage was set, and where Soames could be found for a least half of every day. The room at the bottom of the corkscrew staircase was different. This was Soames cabin. The actual living space for the ship's master. This floor of the cabin was twice as big as the cruise quarters, located up forward of the ship, just behind the galley.

Shareef felt a familiar but unusual feeling flow over him, as the cabin boy, he had free run of the ship, most anytime of the day save the dead of night, or during a storm at sea. He was trusted enough to come and go as he pleased, anywhere in the Gypsy Star. This morning, as each and every morning, his duty was simple. Placed the tray squarely in the middle of the huge slab of teakwood that was Soames pride and joy. The captain's desk was longer, wider and heavier than the four biggest hands in the ship's company. For it had taken that many of them, and a couple of more to haul the great polished desk aboard, and fitted into his cabin,thru her windows once he had traded for it during a long port call. The desk itself was made from the very same wood as the Gypsy Star herself, so there was a healthy respect between Shareef, who enjoyed all of nature's wonders, and the fine craftsmanship of a piece of furniture probably heavier than some of the ship's she had sailed aboard.

Shareef put the tray down in its appointed place, and turned to leave, his footsteps soft, quick and unobtrusive, as usual. Shareef had learned that Soames could hear a pin drop in this cabin, even as he worked over the chart table directly above. No one else on the ship was allowed to enter the space without the direct leave of the captain himself.

So Shareef was even more startled when the tall, lean, one eyed figure of the second mate, Gilpin by name, brought him up short at the doorway of the captain's cabin as Shareef moved to leave.

"Your pardon, mate Gilpin." Shareef said quietly once he could draw a full breath again. This time, Shareef didn't bother with the salute. Those he reserved for the captain, as another mark of his station.

"So there you be, boy!" Gilpin snarled in response. "Malingering down here, when there's a crew to be fed up above. Now get hopping, or I'll see to it that you feel the rope's end to go with your luncheon!"

"Yes sir!" Shareef replied smartly. "By your leave Sir."

"And that will be Mister Gilpin to the likes of you, foreign scum!"

"Yes sir, may I have leave to go, Sir?" Shareef now replied, making an effort to sound subservient to the hostile officer.

A trace of subservience made Gilpin smile a crooked smile. "That's how you talk to your betters boy, and see that you do it with me from now on, or I'll flay off that olive hide of yours, and fashion another jib for use up top!"

“Speak of hides, would you now?" Came a surly sounding voice from behind Gilpin's back, as a hand heavier than the officer himself fell upon Gilpin's thin, bony shoulder. "And what would you be doing here, Mr. Gilpin, without my leave, or orders to do the same?"

"Captain I beg to report--" Gilpin fairly stammered as Soames kept hold of him like a hooked mackerel.

"You beg to report that you came down here to have my cabin boy for more than breakfast, you scurvy naïve!" Soames whispered in an icy tone into the thinner man's ear.

"Seems to me it's you who's had this coming for longer than due time, Mr. Gilpin, Sir." Soames went on, as he shifted his weight and turned himself on one heel, lifting Gilpin off of his feet as he went as if the thinner man was nothing more than a demijohn of wine.

"Shareef, you too!" Soames snapped sharply. "Your Honor has been challenged, and it's time for you to answer for yourself."

"Aye-aye!" Sir." Shareef responded, as he followed Soames and the gaffed Gilpin toward the spiral staircase leading to the ship's main deck.

Shareef wasn't at all sure what he had done, or what he could do in the situation except to obey orders. But as he came up the familiar three-step companionway onto the main deck, he suspected that the biggest crime committed might have been interrupting the captain's breakfast.

"Attention on deck!" Captain Soames shouted so that everyone on deck, and even most of those aloft would be able to hear him over the slight morning breeze. "Muster hands to witness punishment!"

A tall, lean figure, with skin turned almost to bronze by untold hours under an ocean sun was the first to snap to attention. "Aye-Aye, Sir!"

The officer replied as he reached for the short rope on the ship's Bell, and set it to clanging.

Aboard ship, it was like ringing a combination of fire bell, church bell, and call to divide the loot. Quickly, every member of the ship's company rolled out onto the deck, forming into two ranks on either side of the open space, while all the hands aloft scurried down ropes and sheets to drop easily to the deck, even from the crows nest high above. Within one minute, there were thirty good men and true lined up as if for parade across the ship's deck. Captain Soames waited for the assembly to quiet, and the sound of the bell to fade away before he spoke to his crew.

"Now hear this, all of you. We've had a problem on this here vessel ever since Shareef here signed the compact and signed on as a member of our crew in good standing." Soames began, establishing Shareef's absolute right to be considered a full member of the crew, in spite of his station as a part-time servant to the captain.

"Just now, Shareef caught Mr. Gilpin where he oughtn't to be, and Mr. Gilpin leveled a threat against Shareef, based on the color of his skin." Captain Soames went on to explain to the ship's company.

His words were greeted with several snarling voices, filled with discontent. The crew in general had been happier, and much better fed, since Shareef had signed on. Now his ability to stand as a crew member had been placed under threat by one of the ship's company.

Far out at sea, the captain was the first and foremost justice aboard his ship. He might've sentenced Gilpin to the yardarm, the cat of nine tails, or spending the rest of the voyage in chains. But Soames knew his crew, no such punishment was befitting of a real seaman no matter his crime. While on the water, Soames had developed a different sort of justice system, one which the crew approved, both for the teaching of lessons, and providing moments of sport that would liven up endless days of rolling waves upon the sea.

"Shareef, you were the one offended by Mr. Gilpin's threat. It matters not that he is an officer, nor shipmate. By the law of the sea, you have the right to challenge Mr. Gilpin and his words. How say you, Shareef, for your Honor, and that of a crew who elected Mr. Gilpin third officer?" Soames asked Shareef without looking away from his bright green eyes. Shareef's response was not long in coming.

“Release Mr. Gilpin, Captain, I am not so offended that we should make a fight of it."

There was a second outburst of unsettled growling from the assembled ships company.

But Shareef knew that he was within his rights to ask that the third mate go free.

"Take him lad!" Growled one of the voices from the midst of the ship's company. "Gilpin's all talk, boy. Teach him a stiff lesson!" Another voice growled.

"Down with Gilpin! Let him work the galley for a while, says I!" Shouted another of the crew.

Captain Soames, who held an arresting grip on Gilpin's narrow, thin shoulder let his third officer go, and Gilpin nearly fell into a pile on the deck before the ship's company.

"Consider yourself fortunate Mr. Gilpin." The captain said sternly. I've seen this lad take care of himself, and more than a match he is for the likes of you." Soames said with disdain. "As for you, you scurvy rat, you're broken. You'll spend the rest of this voyage confined to your hammock, and when we see land again, I want you gone from the ship. You'll get a normal share for a regular hand, but not a penny farthing more than that, if Soames has anything to say about it."

Soames watched carefully as Gilpin's already beady eyes narrowed into points of rage. The Officer 's share just taken from him was five times the value of a normal crew share. Gilpin had just been stripped of enough money to live on for most of a year, thanks to his own temperament.

As he watched closely, some would say later that Soames knew precisely what Gilpin's reaction would be. Gilpin himself seemed to shrink into the deck, going down on his knees before the ship's company which was now standing close around him.

"Please Captain, and this old hand begs his shipmates, please don't do this to an old hand on his last voyage." Gilpin was now almost prostrate before the crew, begging on bent knee, with hands clasped before him in prayerful supplication.

Then, Gilpin's hand moved suddenly, plucking a dirk off the belt of one of the crewmen standing closest to him. In the same motion, he sprang up, and forward, in an all out lunge for Shareef!

Shareef's reaction was so smooth and quick that almost no one in the ship's company save Soames himself realized what had happened until after it was well finished, and Mr. Gilpin was a quivering mass pinned to the deck with Shareef standing with both feet on the man's forearm.  
Soames had seen it before, in a far different setting, nearly half the world away.

Shareef hadn't parried the attack, as much as sidestepped it. But his feet never moved, as the olive skinned cabin boy simply pivoted his body, pointing his shoulders rather than his chest at the oncoming thrust of the knife. The blade had found only air by the time Shareef twisted his body, winding up his forearms in a half circle around the upper half of his body as he hopped upward slightly from the deck, allowing his entire body to join the circular motion. Both of Shareef's fists swung around like a bolo, catching Mr. Gilpin square across the jaw, followed by a sweeping kick that caught the side of the man's head before he could turn, or make a move to defend himself.

Shareef watched in midair as Mr. Gilpin deflated to what seemed to be a soft mass of rags scattered on the deck.

As his body came down from the short leap, Shareef landed both feet on the now outstretched forearm whose hand still held the useless knife. The pressure of being stepped on was enough to open the hand, and Shareef quickly disarmed Gilpin with a quick flick of his toes! The dirk sailed harmlessly over the heads of the ship's company, as the pointed blade created a small nick in the ship's railing on the other side of the gathered ships company.

The familiar sound signaled the end of the fight, which happened so fast the ship's company never had a chance to wager on it.

After a moment to allow everything to settle again, Soames was the only one on the quarterdeck who wore a satisfied smile.

"You there!" Soames ordered the closest pair of sailors. "Bear a hand, and cart that rubbish down below. Chain him to his hammock, and if he wakes, tell him that if he makes the slightest sound for the next twenty-four hours, I'll stretch him across a cannon's mouth!"

The pair of sailors moved with uncommon dispatch to carry out the Captain's orders. All the while however, it was not Soames who held the gaze of the ship's company.

Instead, it was Shareef, who still wore his neatly appointed white linen headgear, as if it had been set in place with a paintbrush, rather than two turns of dark cord about his head.

"And to the rest of the ship's company, a word to the wise from an old sea dog." Captain Soames spoke up, addressing the remainder of his crew in a calm, steady, and commanding voice. 

“Nobody, anyplace, anytime lays any more than a Kama on the palm of Shareef's hand, unless they want some more of what you just saw. You heard me give Gilpin fair and just warning. He chose not to listen, and see what happened to him." Soames told his crew. 

"Shareef here could fight ye all to a dead standstill, and during a storm at sea too." Soames continued. "I say t'would be the wise among ye who keep him as a friend, as well as a shipmate, and he who cooks your grub."

"Shareef for third, says I!" A gruff voice piped up from the midst of the gathered ships company.

"Aye! Give the lad Gilpin's share, I say!" Came another affirmative voice.

Shareef had barely had a chance to relax before he looked up slightly at Captain Soames, who wore a broad smile, and gave Shareef a slight approving nod of his head.

"So say ye one, so say ye all?" Soames asked the balance of the ship's company save one.

There was a rousing single cheer as the rest of the crew, now gathered around Shareef shouted "Aye!"

"So mote it be!" Soames replied with a jovial grin that also brought a smile to Shareef's youthful face.

"Mr. Gallagher!" Soames called out more sharply. "Note the vote of the crew in the ship's log, and adjust the tally book so that third officer Shareef is allotted his proper share."

Standing not far from Captain Soames there was a tall figure with a stunning shock of pure white hair, and light skin that was tanned more like fine leather. Mr. Gallagher had always been everything Mr. Gilpin never had been, including being civil and fair to Shareef at all times. Shareef flashed his best salute in the first mate's direction, and Mr. Gallagher smiled, just as broadly as did his Captain.

"Shareef here will continue to see to your rations, my boys, but he'll also spend time with Mr. Gallagher, learning seamanship and navigation, as befits an officer aboard any ship commanded by Captain Soames."

"Ships company, dismissed!" Soames snapped sharply.

Across the deck from Shareef, four of the crew gathered up what was left of Mr. Gilpin, and shuffled at a quick sidestep to get the disgraced seaman below decks, before some even worse evil befell their former officer.

Shareef was already making his own way across the deck, headed down for the galley. It wasn't anywhere near lunchtime yet, but Shareef remembered clearly the conversation at the rail with the captain that very morning.  
There was a storm coming, as if one had not already arrived. For himself, and for any of the hands who worked in the galley on the next watch, a storm at sea was nearly as bad as an outbreak of fire aboard ship.

The galley space itself was compact, and generally well organized. Shareef had seen to that himself. But he also knew that there were a half-dozen open sacks, casks, and barrels of provisions used on every watch to prepare food for the crew. These had to be sealed, or in nautical terms, battened down, before a pitching and rolling ship's deck could spill everything from flour to delicate eggs, all over the ship's tight cooking space. Shareef had cleaned up more than one such mess during more than a year at sea, and he had no desire at all to clean up another. His time was much better spent, and not on navigation, nor the office of third officer. For Shareef also had one more job aboard ship. And that job needed to be seen to before the oncoming storm multiplied its difficulty.

Officially, the Gypsy Star was a trading vessel. But no ship of any size or expense anywhere on the oceans of the world of the Twelve would leave port without cannons, cannonballs, and powder. Piracy was a greater difficulty far out at sea, for it took great ships of the line, and vast crews of men to run down, capture and loot another ship at sea.  
But the Gypsy Star, and the course she sailed took her closer with the peel of every Bell aboard ship into more coastal waters. The risk of piracy went up, as Blue water turned Brown. Smaller boats which could move faster and maneuver faster than most ships under sail could strike out quickly, and return to land bases along the craggy coast.  
Shareef's responsibility for the moment, was to secure the ship's defensive armament, and the precious powder, from the teeth of the oncoming storm.

The Gypsy Star was technically a six gun sloop, although special modifications to her hull would allow the mounting of six more guns on each side of the ship, the lower tier being much closer to the water line, and much more dangerous with the ports open, when the Star ran heavy laden in the water. The power of a storm at sea could send six pound cannonballs flying across the ship's deck as if they had been shot from her own cannons. And the destruction that they could cause had to be seen to be believed. So, Shareef's first task was to quickly, and efficiently remove each of the large buckets next to the Star's gun ports. Each bucket held four six pound cannonballs. These were Nominally kept on deck at all times, in case the Star needed to make a fight of her survival. But in the face of the storm, these defensive weapons and their ammunition could kill their own ship as easily as any other.

So Shareef's first task as the third officer was the same as if he was still a lowly cabin boy. Shareef went to the hatch in the deck he had dropped through so many times before. Quickly, he pulled up a large, uniquely carved piece of wood, which he slid over his shoulders behind his neck. The yoke itself was made of the same teakwood as the deck of the Star. There was one hook carved into each and of the arm which formed the central part of the yoke. Once fitted with the lifting aid, Shareef's task became simpler. All that remain for him to do was walk along first the port, and then the Starboard side rail of the Gypsy Star, picking up the buckets of cannonballs one, two, and then three on each hook as he went along. This was only one trip out of four along each rail, Port and Starboard. His goal was always the same place. There was a unique metal lock box which was literally built into the hull of the ship itself. This metal locker was actually a small room in its own right, for there was room here within the secured space for the barrels of powder which also went with the cannons and their ammunition. The metal lined space could be flooded with seawater in an emergency, to prevent the powder from exploding.

So each of the four trips crossed Shareef's back, neck and shoulders with one hundred-fifty pounds of iron, wood, and powder kegs on each trip along the rails and below decks, actually at or under the water line. His first few weeks aboard ship had been made excruciatingly painful, as his first genuine job aboard the Gypsy Star was not cabin boy but powder monkey. For any ship which plied the sea as a trader could also be converted to a warship. This was the more mercenary, and famous side of the seagoing profession, as many of the cities and kingdoms in the world of the Twelve did not maintain their own standing Navy.

Several times since signing on, the Star and her crew had signed papers, and were given Letters of Marque for a military mission for one or more alliance of cities and kingdoms.

Everyone, including landlubbers as well as the ship's crew knew that war was bad for business. Higher interests in political circles seem to realize this as well, and conflicts at sea had been blissfully short and mostly bloodless all during Shareef's passage so far.

Although those days were mostly long in the past, and better than a year of seeing to the guns and ammunition had made the movement of powder and ammunition as commonplace as the cooking he had taken up in the ship's galley. It was yet another job aboard ship that Shareef could do almost entirely by reflex, while his thinking mind concentrated on other more complicated matters.  
Shareef tended to let his mind do the thinking, while his body did most of the work, as if his physical form was nothing more than another machine, like a block and tackle, or a living winch to move cargo.

What Shareef, and most of his shipmates had failed to notice was that frequent bouts of demanding physical labor had slowly etched the olive skinned galley master into the sleek and muscular form of a fighter, blessed with an abundance of strength, dexterity and cunning. So as time went on, demanding physical labors seemed to fade into the background, becoming easier in themselves, even as life aboard a ship at sea sometimes became almost too complicated for the boy who had begun life as a shepherd, rather than an experienced sailor.


	2. A Storm in the Heart

Shibu paused once again as he walked by the second story window of the tower which was his new place to live. Absently, he set the box of potion making glassware down gently in the center of his worktable.

But it was clear as the glassware that Shibu had something on his mind. As he paused to look out the window for the third time in as many minutes, Cici padded up behind him on silent fawn feet, and dropped her lithe, muscular arms gently over Shibu's broad shoulders.

"What's wrong, Shibu?" She asked sympathetically. "Nervous about being here on your own?" She asked, giving Shibu a loving and gentle hug to help chase away what seemed to be his apprehension.

"No, Sis, it isn't that." Shibu replied, as he took a moment to melt in the warm, sleek muscles of the archer's arms. "It's the storm." Shibu replied, still looking for words for an incomplete sensation that had haunted him all of the previous night, and most of the morning as the seaside sky around the castles former lookout tower darkened ominously. "There's something about it, something that I've felt before, but can't put into words." Shibu explained patiently, frustrated at his own inability to make words describe what he felt deep inside.

"For a boy born on a lightning bolt, that's unusual. No one knows when a storm is coming better than you do." Cici remarked. "That's part of the reason the King decided to give you the space, as well as the space down below. He knows your instincts, and he trusts you as much as we all do, Sir Shibu." Cici replied.

Shibu could see the glint of pride in Cici's eyes as she spoke the title which was soon to be bestowed on her adoptive brother.

"Sir Shibu." A familiar voice repeated, her more lilting voice turning over the words of the title more like they were lyrics from some great piece of inspirational music. "I'm so proud of you, my darling." Felice sighed lovingly as she floated by, placing a large box of root extracts next to the glassware on Shibu's worktable.

With her hands free, Felice was able to join Cici's python like embrace of the kingdom's newest defender. As his mother's hands wrapped about his shoulders along with Cici's arms, Felice kissed Shibu very gently on the nose. Felice was nearly incandescent with happiness and pride, and she claimed her mother's rights in letting it show how proud she was of her son.

"Aw, mom!" Shibu replied gently. "I won't be a knight for real until the middle of next month." He responded modestly.

"The full moon is on the 13th, Shibu. So you only have 10 days to wait." Cici added to the conversation with her own touch of pride and accomplishment in Shibu's upcoming honor. "The trials are in a weeks time, and your investiture is three days after the trials." Cici continued. "You can't possibly be worried about the trials." Cici wondered out loud. "You're so good with your bow that there are whispers among my people that Cra herself gave you those magnificent blue eyes of yours."

Now, Shibu was blushing, the same gentle strawberry tone on his bronze cheeks that was more familiar to his mother, then to her son.  
That must have been Cici's real target, for now, as Shibu looked directly up at her, Cici was also smiling lovingly at Shibu.

“The King could drop gold coins from the highest battlement of the castle, and you'd put a whole through every last one of them." Cici reminded Shibu.

Beneath her strong arms, Cici felt Shibu's chest expand just a little. The Eliotrope archer had confidence in his proven skill with his unique bow. Shibu also knew from reading the history of Bonta Castle that only two other archers had ever been inducted into the Corps of Bonta's Knights. Both had lost their lives defending the castle in a war nearly a lifetime ago.

"Don't forget dear." Felice nudged gently. "The King will be stopping by later on to make sure your comfortably settled in here. Be sure to let him know how grateful you are for everything he's given you by way of celebration."

"Including my own apartment, and working space. I like it up here already. As much as there is to study in the catacombs, I like being able to see the sea, the Sea Dragon, and the sky!" Shibu remarked genuinely excited at the prospect of the entire tower being his own living space.

Normally, the highest tower in Bonta would belong to Master Chang. But the high sorcerer to the royal court had readily agreed that Shibu was a special case, and clearly in need of his own place to work and grow. When Master Chang and Shibu agreed to exchange spaces, it was Master Chang who seemed as glad as Shibu had been to take up semi-permanent residence in the vast underground caverns beneath the foundations of Bonta Castle.

The venerable Sage and his redoubtable friend was still Shibu's teacher in chief, but Shibu had grown so much in the previous year that it had become clear to everyone at court that the dark-haired Eliotrope with the amazing bow skill would be most at home, and probably most useful, in the highest tower of the ancient castle.

The Master Sage had made a gentle suggestion to the throne, which was immediately taken up by his Majesty. 

The King himself had become not only absolute ruler of Bonta and holder of Shibu's highest loyalty, but the elderly man on the throne had become someone even more important in both the lives of Shibu and Felice. The elderly monarch had taken up the role of royal grandfather with the same gusto as he applied to ruling Bonta herself. Absolutely nothing had been spared either of them since Shibu's intervention had helped to save Bonta from the machinations of the King's ne'er-do-well half-brother.

The elderly monarch had proven himself equally gentle and understanding when he himself had seen Shibu's need in its turn. The King would appear, mostly in the time after breakfast, but before the start of the Royal audience, and pass a few minutes not only with the young man who had saved his kingdom, but with Shibu as a boy who needed to talk from time to time with a man. The King's wise and insightful nature had impressed Shibu from the first,such that there was only one secret that Shibu still kept to himself.  
It was another side of Shibu's nearly explosive year of growth, and was a secret Shibu had already shared with his teacher, Master Chang, as well as with Cici and Felice.

The fact that Shibu had grown nearly a full head taller over the intervening summer and autumn had helped to distract from the secret hidden so well beneath Shibu's omnipresent and unique hat.  
But as much as Shibu had come to trust and be loyal to the King, the secret hidden by Shibu's seemingly soft tailed hat was one that the family itself kept closely guarded.

The passing seasons had seen Shibu grown not only taller, but wider and more robust across the chest, shoulders and torso. His long powerful kicking legs remained the envy of all who saw Bonta's youngest knight and best striker play Boufball.  
Shibu's wild thatch of ink black hair had grown thicker and longer. Shibu never found the heart to cut it, but its length was always clean, and neatly combed, as Shibu styled it to fall across his shoulders, and down to the middle of his back underneath the tail of his unique blue hat.

Consistent archery practice had earned Shibu the arms, shoulders, and chest he had so much wanted when he was younger. So much so that the young farrier had discovered a showy talent for bending horseshoes in his strong hands without using the heat from the Forge; where Shibu still publicly tended to the castle's wrought iron at least one full day a week, to the obvious delight of many of Bonta's smitten female citizens. 

But the real expression of Shibu's physical prowess came when his natural strength met and combined with his own gentle, shy, and naturally inquisitive nature. The young squire who could twist horseshoes for sport was more at home helping bricklayers raise stacks of bricks, and hods of mortar to add to and rebuild the extensive walls of Bonta Castle. Shibu had taken up masonry and woodworking with the same zeal as he had taken up potion making when he was younger. Bonta's newest knight was also one of her master potion makers, and no one in Bonta took sick for very long without a home visit from either Shibu or Felice, or in serious cases, both of them together to render aid and offer both the Enripsa's cure, and the wonders which Shibu could now manifest when combining herbal potions. As a result, the majority of Bonta's population, even those dwellers who lived within the vast stone foundations beneath the castle where Shibu had had the first great adventure of his life, found themselves healthy and well for a majority of the rolling year.

For everything that had gone so well over the past year, Cici had begun to notice something else affecting Shibu. For all the friends he had, for he made friends so easily, and kept them all as close as a miser keeps gold, Shibu sought out more and more time alone, usually at odd hours or by leaving his bed late at night when he was supposed to be sleeping.

For all of the races in the World of the Twelve, there was no one else like Shibu. Both Cici and Felice had begun to recognize the wasting and pale touch of loneliness in Shibu's day-to-day life.

As Cici and Felice moved the rest of the small boxes from the base of the circular staircase, Cici caught Shibu out of the corner of her eye. The dark-haired boy was looking hard out to sea thru the open window that swept fresh sea breeze into the base of the tower.

Cici put down the box of Shibu's favorite books, and joined her brother at the window looking out over the flat blue-green sea, as the water rolled in at low tide.

"Shibu, just because you're on your own here doesn't mean you're alone." Cici advised tenderly. She was already able to sense Shibu's restive sense of separation and loneliness setting in.  
Over the intervening year, Shibu had grown just tall enough to be able to take Cici comfortably around the waist, without straining to reach up to her. Shibu's hug was always warm, tender, and strong. This time, Cici felt Shibu melt into the embrace and hold it. Cici draped her arms gently over Shibu, massaging his shoulders in a way that melted the unusually stiff muscles that she found there.

"I know, Cici." We've only been separated once before, and I can't help thinking about the bad things that happened." Shibu confessed quietly.

"That's my little brother. The family Guardian. Like every young handsome Dragon boy that I know." Cici replied as she ran a gentle palm across the top of Shibu's head, following the lines of his familiar hat down toward the middle of his back as she held him close and warm.

Felice and I have apartments here too, you know." Cici reminded Shibu. "We're just one tower away." She added.

Shibu smiled. His sister was ever the tactical Archer, slyly omitting the fact that the tower she mentioned was more than half of the castle away, and overlooked the cityscape of Bonta.

But Shibu tried to smile and look reassured for Cici's sake.

"That's better, little brother." Cici replied sounding more bright and chipper. "You'll find a half dozen arrows of recall in your quiver. I made them for you last night. If you ever get lonely, or need to see us, I expect you to use them. Like the good Ranger that you are." Cici told Shibu with a note of mock sternness in her voice.

"Don't worry sis, I still plan on being underfoot at least one day a week, because I have to bring the potions I make into mom's stockroom before the delivery wagons arrive."

That made Cici smile again. Because she knew and understood the volume and quantity at which Shibu could turn out large stocks of even the most complex potions. Over the last year, he and Felice had taken over potion manufacture not only for the Royal guard, and everyone in the castle, but the pair had opened a thriving business.

The two of them had gone to every potion maker in the kingdom, and together they had formed a guild founded to ensure the manufacturer of standardized medicines. All healing potions were now made to the same standards, set by Felice and Shibu, and regardless of who made them, the considerable profits of the guild each and every month were equally divided among its members. The new way of doing business had brought untold prosperity to what had been a business known for cutthroat competition and jealously guarded secrecy. As the money came in, first in trickles, and then in rivers as weeks and months rolled by, decades of suspicion and secrecy had fallen away, and the Potion Makers Guild became a model for all the other crafts people in Bonta.

Shibu had been beyond tireless in his efforts to standardize potion recipes, and ensure the quality of the ingredients. He had moved from making chests of one hundred potions, to magically infused vats which made hundreds of gallons at a time, filling thousands of smaller bottles which were then shipped out everywhere across the World of the Twelve.  
When they began, healers were more often called to counteract the effect of a poorly made potion then to administer healing to the sick and injured. But thanks to Shibu's relentless drive, instances of poorly made potions had dropped to almost nothing. This development gave nothing but pleasure to the Enripsa healers, who suddenly had more time during the day to tend to people with genuine injuries, where brushes could heal when potions could not.

"Little brother, have I told you today that you are amazing?" Cici asked Shibu lovingly as she held him close and comfortable.

"As much as I enjoy the sound of your voice, I enjoy hearing the sound of your heart even more." Shibu replied.

Cici simply melted like sealing wax set too close to a candle. Shibu always knew just exactly what to say, and how to say it in such a way that made Cici want to give him even more of her devotion.

The books in the boxes were not just decorations to impress the King or the occasional visitors who would come to the tower. Shibu possessed a fine intellect, and had read many of the books in the wooden boxes to the point of memorizing them. Reading had given Shibu not only a fine intellect, but just a touch of the poet in his handsome spirit. From the first time Cici saw him as a baby, she had been as devoted a sister as if Felice had been her mother as well. And it seemed every time she talked to Shibu, Cici felt not only more confident, but more loved than the moment before. Shibu could ask her for positively anything, and both of them knew it to be one of the promises of life that bound them together. That same promise made it harder then Cici herself could admit for her to leave Shibu alone, even in his own new home.

"I love you Shibu." Cici whispered only to him as the two sat melted together on the wooden bench which ran just below the edge of the window. "No set of drawbridges or any castle walls will ever keep us apart, Cra's promise."

"I love you too, my beautiful redheaded Ranger." Shibu replied with a loving smile that lit up his blue eyes like polished sapphires.

Cici could never bring herself to tell Shibu how quickly and how well even his simplest words could reduce her to a puddle of archer.

Shibu had hit the target again, just as he had five-hundred times the first night Cici had given him his bow. The last year had wrought changes for Cici as well. For she was now in command of the entire Cra Guild in Bonta. Mostly, her rank meant dealing more with paperwork, promotions, test scores, and teaching. But she always found time for Bonta's most promising squire, soon to be knight, and most gifted archer.

Six months before, just after her promotion, the King had dropped Shibu's name into the competition which attracted archers from all over the World of the Twelve.

When Shibu won the competition by thirty-five points, there had been unexpected calls of favoritism, and general sour grapes from the other contestants, who had been made to look as if they were still learning which was the pointed end of an arrow.

An investigation by the Captain of the Bontarian Royal Guard had cleared Shibu of any cheating, or any favoritism on his behalf.  
Cici had been absolutely livid at the suggestion of any wrongdoing, and had considered quitting the guild entirely once they insulted Shibu.

Shibu, for his part, had requested trial by combat, which for archers meant a grueling series of challenges, unique hunts, and wilderness survival tasks that were meant to take any guard candidate to the limits, and well past them. At the close of fifteen endless days, and the same number of worry filled nights, only Shibu and two other candidates remained standing. The two withdrew their accusations, and asked Shibu's forgiveness, becoming fast friends with the dark-haired boy rather than rivals.

Cici held her tongue, but secretly she reveled in watching Shibu use both his greater mind and greater strength to crush the egos of those who had accused him of cheating.

For her fairness and her faithfulness, Cici had earned promotion within the guild, which Shibu begged her to accept.  
Having conquered his opponents via friendship, Shibu was magnanimous in victory. But he also decided, having proved himself to the entire Kingdom at last, to step away from competition as a Ranger, and concentrate more on potion making and medicine. 

As Cici and Shibu shared the seaside view, Shibu became aware of another presence within the room. It manifested itself as a tiny, translucent gem which seemed to flicker like a firefly,even in the daylight. Neither the Eliotrope nor the Cra was taken aback by the sudden appearance of the unusual phenomenon. They just stayed still and waited, keeping their window seats as a small crystalline firefly halted in mid-air and with a flash like a sunbeam it began to transform into the shape of a tall slender figure more than twice the height of both Cici and Shibu together.

"Good morning Master!" Shibu said with a light and jovial tone. "I hope you're well this morning, Master Chang." Cici added as a follow-on.

Master Chang seemed to transform into the space before him, sharing the view out the window with Shibu and Cici.

"Thank you my friends. I'm quite well." The tall master replied in an affable tone. "However, the sensation that comes on the edge of the storm is worrisome. I can feel it plainly, even in the depths of the catacombs. I fear that what we are facing is no ordinary storm." Master Chang disclosed evenly. His rich voice was both strong and steady, and bore no trace of worry or panic.

"Is there anything we can do that we have not already done, Master?" Shibu asked, taking on a more serious tone than Cici had heard from him all morning.

"You have felt something strange from the gathering storm also, have you not, Shibu?" Master Chang asked.

"Yes Master." Shibu replied immediately. "There is something, or perhaps someone, in danger out there, where the storm and the horizon seem to meet." Shibu confessed to his teacher quietly in a serious tone. "I feel uneasy, almost helpless somehow. But I can't figure out how to help someone whom I cannot feel nor see. It is an uncomfortable sensation. One I do not like." Shibu continued.

"Your powers are as always an extension of your heart, Shibu. Your impulse is to help someone in trouble, no matter where they are. This is the role of a guardian." Master Chang replied, knowing that his words were not entirely comforting to the young Eliotrope.  
Shibu took no role more seriously than the one reflected by his ancient Draconic title. "So what more can I do for now, Master?" Shibu asked as frustration seemed to hold him still with invisible chains.

"For now, you can do that which is most difficult for any guardian. Watch, and wait. The answer may come on the teeth of the storm." Master Chang counseled.

Master Chang's remark set Shibu to thinking, and it showed most vividly in his bright blue eyes. "Since we are on the coast, perhaps having a rescue boat or two ready on the beach might not be a bad idea." Shibu thought out loud.

Master Chang's silent smile was all the approval Shibu needed for his suggestion. He rose from the window bench after sharing one more moment of gentle embrace with Cici.

"I'll go talk to the Captain of the Guard, and see if the boat crews can be made ready before the storm breaks."

Shibu didn't stand on ceremony, and darted from the room at the top speed of his formidable Ranger run. Once he was gone, Cici looked to Master Chang with gratitude.

"Thank you Master Chang. Our Shibu is happiest in motion, and even more so when that motion helps someone else." Cici told the redoubtable sorcerer.

"With pleasure, my redheaded Archer." Replied Master Chang as the tall figure added a stately bow. "Trust in Shibu, and his instincts." Master Chang went on. "If he feels someone in trouble out there, I have no doubt that he is right. And the answer will show itself in the hours to come."

"Do not worry, Master Chang." Cici replied, sampling some of Shibu's boundless confidence. "We'll be on guard right alongside our favorite Guardian." Cici replied. "It takes no special magic to know that the gathering storm beyond these walls will be grave, and I too would worry for anyone upon the sea in the teeth of the storm." Cici told Shibu's mentor and teacher.

"May the fidelity of Cra herself stand with you both this day, my noble archers." Master Chang replied quietly. "Should you seek my help, send me an arrow, and I shall come and bring what aid I can enable." Master Chang replied.

And in a moment, he had reduced once more to the small sunlit firefly, and was gone from sight.


	3. Terror at Sea

As Shareef finished collecting the last of the volatile powder kegs, the gun crews were already running in the cannons, and sealing the gun ports on the Gypsy Star with steel pins thicker than Shareef's wrist.  
The realization that the crew faced a storm at sea had come up upon them slowly, just like the bad weather now gathering in the green sky, and the increasingly angry looking clouds which showed traces of yellow, and a sickly green which matched the volatile sea.

Every hand not working the guns was aloft, helping to lower and secure the ship's sails before they could be torn to bits by the lashing claws of the gathering storm.

For the moment, Shareef needed the special key to the magazine to finish locking away gunpowder and cannonballs before another form of destruction fell upon their ship.

As he headed below toward Soames cabin, this time his hands were free. And it was a good thing, too. As Sharif wound his way to the midpoint of the round staircase, the first gust of crosswinds buffeted the ship, and she went lurching hard to port. Shareef was nearly spilled across the companionway like a basket of fruit. As he let go of the spiral staircase, and tried dropping to the deck beneath his feet, he found himself face-to-face with Soames, who had him under the arms, and steadied him as the ship rocked in the opposite direction. Far above, both of them could hear and feel the first gust of storm wind shriek through the ship's rigging.

"Steady there, Mr. Shareef." Captain Soames spoke with quiet confidence. "We're in it now, just as ye and I felt this morning."

"Aye,Sir!" Shareef responded robotically. "Beg to report all secure below decks, but the magazine needs securing, Captain." Shareef reported dutifully.

Soames reached calmly for the key ring that hung from his belt, even as his ship took another hard lurch to starboard. But just as Shareef took the key, the world, and the sea itself seem to fall out from beneath the ship, and the Gypsy Star seemed to drop fathoms rather than feet into the trough of a huge wave!

Shareef had survived storms at sea before. He had learned by reflex lessons of moving with the ship, rather than trying to move against her. As the full fury of the storm broke across the decks above, she was moved by a lashing whip of white foam and green water.

Shareef's first thought wasn't for the magazine anymore, because by now, they were surely flooded. Rather his thoughts turned to those of the crew still aloft, fighting a life-and-death battle with canvas and rope against the power of the sea. Once the sails were secure, every man in the crew understood that the best and safest place to be was below decks, with all of the Star's hatches battened down tight against the assault of the storm. But Shareef understood that the storm had come up too fast for many of the crew securing the sails. They would have almost no chance to climb down the rigging, nor to try swinging down to the deck off of the yard arms.

Shareef was suddenly overtaken by a sensation which rocked him even more deeply than the savage storm unleashed on the decks above. He was third officer. His place was to help his crew, and his friends.  
But as he took hold of the rail on the spiral staircase, and pulled hard to climb up, he was surprised to find Soames holding him firmly around the waist, and pulling him back down, with the strength of a whirlpool!

"No lad!" Soames shouted now, to make himself heard over the lashing of waves across the deck, and a storm wind that seemed to howl like a wounded animal. 

"Can't afford to lose you, and the others!" Soames ordered, shouting at the top of his voice. "Secure the deck hatch, and then lay below! That's an order, Mister Shareef!"

Just as Captain Soames finished speaking, a thick wave of seawater washed down the open space from the deck above, crashing into the bottom of the spiral staircase, and soaking both of them in foaming seawater. The small tidal wave snuffed out the storm lamps, as surely as the water itself would snuff out their lives if the hatch above was left open to the storm.

It wasn't only a mouthful of seawater that made Shareef's stomach churn as Soames let go of him, and Shareef pulled himself upward through the crashing column of water, toward the deck above. He had his orders, but nothing could take the memory of those aloft from his mind.

The ornate door which led from the quarterdeck down to the spiral staircase was made of the same heavy wood as her decks. Shareef could already hear the door which weighed is much as any man in the crew slamming back and forth, caught in the storm wind as surely as he was himself. As he climbed the frame of the spiral staircase hand over hand toward the deck above him. The hazy daylight he had seen only a while ago had disappeared entirely. The Gypsy Star and the entire universe seem to be engulfed in the growing blackness of the full born typhoon.  
Shareef seemed to be climbing upward, into the black maw of a dark and angry beast, whose wrath was spoken in the form of multiple tongues of lightning spat out across the the deck and even thru the rigging of the ship itself, as an ever rising wind howled the monster's tortured rage.

The sting of wind driven saltwater cut into his eyes and skin like one thousand needles. Only when he closed his eyes, and felt his way along the ship that he knew so well did he begin to make progress again. The door on the quarterdeck had an out sized brass handle. Shareef knew it so well because he had had to polish it hundreds of times. He no longer needed his sight to tell him where he was. He waited for the creek of the brass hinges to tell him that the heavy door was rushing toward him, and as the sound came to him at the same time, he made a diving grab for the huge brass handle. The wind was with him this time, and before another sharp pitch in the ship's deck could take the door from his hands again, he used the force of the wind to help him slam the door hard against the frame, and use his free hand to set the sliding locking pin, which buried itself deep into another brass couplet in the door frame. The rush of water passed him finally ceased, and there was a new realm of quiet, where before there had been wind, water, and chaos.

Sweat was not much good at taking the saltwater from his eyes. But then, he felt himself gathered up and his face plunged gently but firmly into a bucket of fresh water. No one had to tell him what to do. He flooded his eyes with fresh water until the burning stopped, and the salt from his eyes became only a small stain on his nose, which he could see when his eyes crossed.

"There now, are you all right, shipmate?" A familiar voice asked.  
Shareef blinked his eyes open, and his vision filled with a familiar tan face, framed by hair as white as the sea foam frothing the waves on deck.

"Very well, thank you, Sir." Shareef replied, just a bit slowly as his eyes readjusted to the softer flickering light of a candle, which seem to rock from side to side along with the table upon which it sat.

"Steady on lad." The more experienced sailor said slowly. "You'll be right enough soon. Appears to me that you're the sort that takes all of this heaving back and forth in your stride."

"Where's the captain?" Sharif asked bluntly.

"The only place you'll find a real Captain in a tempest like this, lad. At the wheel, trying to trim the ship against the waves."

"You mean Captain Soames is up there?" Sharif asked half in shock.

"Aye, lad, and I mean to tell you he intends to stay there."

Shareef bolted upright away from the fresh water and bobbing candlelight.

"And what might your course be, lad?" The white haired first mate asked with shock in his voice.

"Up there!" Shareef replied with a biting tone and feisty attitude.

The white haired first officer shook his head. He reached up with a strong, tanned hand, grabbed Shareef's belt and pulled the younger lad sternly down to the deck.

"You'll sit, and you'll stay, lad. Them's the captain's final orders until we are clear of all this." The first mate snapped back. "Soames has lashed himself to the wheel. What is it that yourself proposes to do up there?" The first mate told Shareef with an equally sharp tone. "The captain mustered all officers here, and it's here you'll stay, third officer Shareef!"

Shareef was soaked to the skin and beyond. Even his kefiyah was nearly translucent with water. He had felt a fraction of the storm's fury, and that had nearly claimed his life. The thought of Captain Soames lashed to the wheel, and the fate that awaited him filled Shareef with the sorrow that buckled his sand-scowered knees, and saw his vision of the swinging candle overflow with tears.

The crew's quarters took on an eerie, almost oppressive silence. It was as if the fury of the last hour had been nothing more than a bad dream. Yet, Shareef could feel something different. This wasn't the common tranquility of a flat ocean and a becalmed wind.  
His next movement was gentle and unobtrusive. He shifted his seeing posture slightly, and gently removed his sandals from both feet, making sure to set them aside in what seemed like a secure corner of what had been before the most insecure place he could imagine.

Slowly and deliberately, he unfolded his legs and rolled forward a bit into a standing position. His animated motion added a long, slow, stretch for his arms. He seemed destined to use these few minutes of deceptive calm to relax himself. He also bent his back slightly twisting his body from side to side, similar to some of the exercises he had seen others in the crew doing on deck while they were off duty.

Shareef stepped out of the circle of the crew comfortably and slowly using the stillness in the calm to check the below deck space for damage. The howling wind and crashing sea would have prevented him from hearing the inflow of any amount of water except a tidal wave into the tightly closed below deck spaces. But his time at sea had taught Shareef one abiding lesson. Water, for all the wonders it could bring was insidious. And sea water, could be even more dangerous and malevolent when whipped into a frenzy by the great engine of a storm at sea.

The portion of the ship reserved to the crew was not wide, but it was longer than average, taking up the remainder of the deck immediately below the main deck which formed their overhead. The Gypsy Star was unlike many other ships of her day not only in a armaments but in her construction as well. Most other trading ships were considered very nearly as disposable commodities by many of the merchants who hired them under contract to move cargo from one port to another. But Captain Soames had been different from his first day aboard as master of the Gypsy Star. The fact was, that Soames owned the entirety of the Gypsy Star, hull and sticks as most of the seafaring crew would say. Shareef had been aboard long enough to see the redoubtable captain slowly replace hull spars, the wood on deck, and even the ships main mast with denser, heavier and more long-lasting woods and metal in spots. 

This was not entirely uncommon among shipowners and ship holders. For it was important for a ship to look good to the eye and feel solid in order for customers, shippers, and adventurers to have faith in its capabilities, as well as the state of her crew. But Soames had gone far beyond that. He replaced the wood and other appointments on the ship where the wood could be seen, and in places and spaces within the ship that only the crew would see, and where a casual passenger whatever lay eyes.

Now, as he walked around the deck of the crew quarters casually looking, feeling, and listening, he was grateful for the work of so many master carpenters and so many shipwrights whose effort had turned Gypsy Star from a simple civilian trading ship made of what seemed to be thin wood and paper into a first-class vessel made of hardwood, heavy beams, and the finest ropes and sails that could be had in any port in the World of the Twelve. She was far less a trading ship, and more like some of the ships of the line that Shareef had seen in various ports of the great nations who kept navies, along with their vast fleets of trading ships.

He had walked her decks not just by the yard, but by the inch, until after nearly four-hundred days at sea, Shareef both knew and understood the ship herself as a living thing, and not just a shell set upon the waters to travel at the caprice of her owner and the wind.  
She was whole, and she was solid. In Shareef's mind, the Gypsy Star lived, as surely as he did.

Shareef breathed a quiet sigh of relief. If the Gypsy Star had been the ship he had come aboard better than a year before, the crew, her cargoes, and her Captain would be somewhere under the sea rather than riding on top of it.

No splinters presented themselves. The wood beneath his feet was dry, smoothly finished, and polished to a sheen with a tool actually made from a small bit of stone on a wooden handle.

His slow walking inspection of the port side was finished almost before anyone missed him from the circle still held by the leaders of the ship's company.

Shareef's movement was partly covered as he had walked out of the broad circle of light radiated by the storm lantern, and had carefully ducked between any number of candle stubs which had long since given up their flames as long curlers of wax spilled from the candles as the Gypsy Star seemed to fight to evade the storm.

As far forward as he could go in the cruise quarters, he turned around in his own shadow to face the starboard side of the ship, and slowly repeated his cadence of measured steps along the starboard side of the hull.  
After a few steps, the sensation that came to his feet and toes was normal, the wooden vessel betraying no trace of any wounds suffered as the teeth of the storm had bitten deeply into the ship.

Casually he made his way back to the circle of the ship's officers. The room here was at its widest and Shareef simply sat back down where he had been, in the very same space, folding his legs in a cross-legged way which also allowed him to put his slippers on again.

"I don't feel anything the matter with the ship." Shibu reported to the first officer. "As far as I can hear and feel, we're not taking on water, listing, or damaged in any way." Shareef reported, has a good third officer should.

"We've done well so far, I'll grant that." The white haired first officer replied. "But half of the storm is still to come, and I won't count us as safe until we see blue skies and calm seas once again." The first officer responded.

Shareef and the white haired officer shared something in common. Both had been forced to go to sea at an early age, completely without any basic seafaring knowledge. So their shared past had cemented an unusual bond between them. The white haired officer took just a moment while some quiet still remained, to smile at Shareef.

"You've done well enough lad." The first officer remarked. "And I'll make sure yer devotion to duty is noted in the ship's log, so the captain will hear of it."

The unexpected bit of praise drew a brief smile from Shareef, who turned the informality of the moment into a fine salute, which the first officer promptly returned.

"Speaking of the captain." Shareef began. "Is there no way we can help them up there?" Shareef asked with a persistent and worried tone in his voice.

“Do ye ever pray, Laddie?” The white-haired officer asked in a whisper directly into Shareef's ear.

Shareef slowly settled down into his place on the deck of the storm tossed ship, alongside most of her crew. The only exception was the former third officer, who remain lashed to his hammock, secured by stout rope, hard knots, and even a short length of black chain.  
Shareef knew he couldn't be set loose with himself and the other crew collected in a small space below decks. For now, as the rock and sway of the Gypsy Star increased, he was probably better off in his hammock anyway.

Their small space was lit by a unique glass lamp set inside a metal housing with louvered openings to control the amount of light the lamp could cast in any direction or on anything. It was powered by a unique supply of oil that was held in a glass bulb beneath the lantern wick itself.

Four storm lanterns hung at various places around the overhead of the cruise quarters below decks. But lighting all four of them increased the risk as well as the illumination, which at that moment was being capably provided by a never ending rain of lightning bolts which seemed to tear open the sky directly above the ship. There was another entirely functional reason why one lamp was more than enough light. As the lantern swayed with everything else below decks, the change in lighting and the change in shadow was something that made the rocking of the ship seem even more severe in the teeth of the storm. So most of the crew, while grateful for the light over the pitch blackness of the storm kept their eyes down and off of the light itself and the swaying shadows all around them while they thought about more pleasant and more private subjects, trying not to be sick.

The crew needed no open port holes nor view of the sky to tell them of the storm's fury. It could be felt from moment to moment with the great yawing movement which swept the ship from side to side, even though by now the Gypsy Star laid at the best Anchorage she could manage in the face of the storm, with her bow turned into the direction of the oncoming and relentless storm waves.

Every once in a while howling wind could be heard beyond the sealed confines below decks. After a while these became warnings for the hapless crew as some of them tried to fight the relentless motion of the storm-tossed vessel. The wind beyond their small quarters howled like a wounded animal turned upon its hunter, and destined to destroy him as if the beast itself were also to die. The great howling wind would scoop up the ship into the ascending curl of a huge storm wave, and by the time the tortured scream of the wind was gone, the ship was dropping again, deep into the trough between the next wave to come. It seemed to be like falling forever, but when the ship's bow crashed through the trough of the wave and started to come right again, there was a renewed feeling of hope and anticipation if not safety among her crew. 

No crew's quarters on any ship at sea merited an accurate chronometer. So time, as tortured and long-suffering as the men in the hold was told by long tails of flickering flame and the occasional stub of a candle with its Lake of liquid wax spilled onto the table as the ship herself fought to keep from drowning in the relentless intensity of the storm.

Matters became worse for the crew as the monstrous wind seem to bear even more of its anger on the small ship itself. Conversation, even shouted at the top of one's voice, to speak a reassuring word now and again became soundless pantomime as the dark fury of the storm seemed to bear down more and more by the second upon the ship itself. 

The squall of rain that came on the edges of the typhoon were great wind driven sheets of water. To those within little more than a slightly larger wooden coffin, they sounded like some relentless see giant had picked up an axe made out of the seas coral and sharp stones and had begun to capriciously chop away at the ship as the storm itself tried to chew her up at the same time.

But every ear among the crew, including Shareef's own, listened hard and intently at this wind driven chopping sound which seem destined to take hunks of hardwood away from the ship herself.

There would be an all too brief spell of a few minutes time when the eye of the storm passed over their small corner of the ocean. For a few precious moments the sea would be still, and the wind calm and placid as if the great black storm was some momentary nightmare called up by a sleepless sailor on watch. 

It was when the great chops of rain began to subside that the eye of the storm began to make itself evident, bringing to the storm tossed crew a few cruel minutes of peace and stillness, in order to gird for more. 

This time was also the most dangerous time for not only the veteran crew, but those new to life at sea. The stillness of the eye of the storm could be interpreted wrongly as the end of the storm, rather than the middle of it, and there was a strong temptation to clamber up the companionway's and unbolt the hatches, the storm seemingly over.

But for the experienced hands aboard ship, including Shareef, this time was deceptive as well as dangerous. For on the other side of the storm, after the eye passed over, the fickle winds and slashing rain would reverse direction, flailing the ship from the opposite direction as before, with a fury that seem to redouble the first half of the storm.

The first mate wound up opposite Shareef in the small tight circle which the veteran hands formed in order to take hold of one another, and try to remain steady as the storm seized up the ship and threw it about as if she was a toy in a child's bathtub. 

The first mate could read Shareef's bright green eyes as surely as he could read the light from any fire set upon the seashore as a warning against the storm.

"I can see what you're thinking, Shareef. We both know there's too little time. Even as fast as you can move, the storm will be on us again just as you reach the quarterdeck." The first officer pronounced quietly to the young lad in the soaking white headdress.

"Will you not let me try, at least?" Sharif replied in desperation. "The risk would be mine alone, as I would secure the deck hatch after me." Shareef quickly explained to the first officer.

"No man aboard admires your loyalty to the captain as much as I do." Replied the first officer whose long shock of white hair overflowed his shoulders, and covered most of his back, even as it swayed in the relentless motion of the storm. "But you know the captain's orders." The first mate continued. "And you also know why." The first mate said sternly. "The captain would rather risk the ship than any other members of her crew." The first mate replied. "So for as long as it is, and believe me I know how hard it is, you'll stay put, boy, just as the captain's ordered."

Shareef, who had begun to use the rising motion that was the first half of every storm wave to begin to stand up, slowly sank back to the deck with a frown deep enough to scratch the teak wood on the deck where he sat.

Shareef could feel the ship and the sea around them begin to settle once more as the eye of the storm crept over the storm tossed sailing vessel. It was an eerie, dead sort of calm. For Shareef could not hear the barking of the seagulls above the ship, nor the seemingly musical notes of the dolphins who usually moved with the ship as she plied the ocean.

Both air and sea creatures had long since departed, for they could foretell the advent of the storm with even greater accuracy than any human tool or sensation could provide.

Just a Shareef began to rethink another try at getting up to the quarterdeck, one of the younger hands in the crew company bolted up from the deck, and the only place that he had chosen to ride out the storm. Shareef could both feel and smell the object terror which had taken over the younger man's mind. Without begging anyone's leave, or obeying the chain of command, the young deckhand stood up full, and bolted for the fore deck hatch, as quickly as he could move in the confined space!

No sooner had the man's attention shifted to the bolted down hatchway in the lazarette, then a wooden belaying pin seem to shoot across the hold, as if fired from a pistol. It caught the hysterical young sailor just on the back of the head, and before he'd been able to take half a dozen steps, he was face down on the deck again, barely farther away from his place before then his own height.

"Two of you, bear a hand, and see young Galloway to his hammock until this is all over." The first officer ordered simply. 

Two of the veteran crewmen nodded quickly, and rose from their places in the united circle to collect the young sailor from the deck where he lay. Very quickly, and as if nothing at all had happened, the young hand was dangling from one of the dozen or so of the hanging canvas beds with which every sailor was familiar.

"Poor lad!" Said another of the veteran ship's company.

"You can't ever tell until it happens, and when he wakes, no man jack of you here will remember anything about it, and that's in order!" The first officer warned the ship's company sternly. "With weather like this, it could be any one of you lying there, rather than him. Just you all keep that in mind."

Just as the first mate finished speaking, another sound rose up from the sea. It's roaring shriek overtook the voice of the white haired first officer. The sound was worse than anything Shareef had ever heard. It was as if the tortured sky conspired with a sea whipped into a frenzy by a cruel taskmaster. The two of them came together to make a sound of terror whose echo within the sealed compartment drained the color from some of the younger faces among the ship's company.

This time, it was more than a squall. It began that way, but within seconds the familiar sound was joined by another noise. This tortured sound came from the ship herself. The Gypsy Star had been rebuilt with some of the stoutest timbers cut from the hardest wood which this whole world could grow. But there was a great jarring sensation to go with everything else, which made these timbers around them, their only defense against the storm outside issue a forlorn creaking sound as weather fought a battle to the death with the body and soul of the Gypsy Star. Together with all the new sounds of the tempest, there were new sensations as well.

This time, the ship was not just riding the waves that beat relentlessly against her hull. Shareef sensed the entire ship shutter continually as she was literally picked up into the air by each larger and larger wave, only to crash back into the sea a few harrowing seconds later. 

It was the sort of sensation that could make man doubt the solid nature not only of wood, but of stone, or steel in their turn. For after the hardwoods from which she was built, they're good ship itself was nothing more than rope, canvas, and a hope for salvation.

For her crew, sealed as they were between decks halfway between the keel and her main deck, every slamming hammer blow from the sea was transmitted through the vitals of the ship, and directly to the crew inside her.

Shareef had seen all manners of storm from water spout to the tremendous living beast of the typhoon, which now seem to rise up out of the sea, to pray upon the Gypsy Star. This time, there was no escape as the entire ship was taken up into the teeth of the storm, and shaken in the same way a ship's cat throttles a helpless mouse.  
Shareef felt his stomach slowly transform into a large knot of bile and fear. The sensations were not for himself but grew more intense as he could feel the ship herself fighting against the inevitable.

Time itself seemed to shrink, to fit into the increasingly smaller space of the sealed cruise quarters. None of the crew, whether experienced hands, or new crew members could accurately mark the passage of time. Their only shared perception of time was the moments between ominous sounds which now came from both the weather and the ship herself. They seemed to come more and more quickly, and with a violence that tore at both ship, and crew.  
And the silence which had meant calm seas and possible salvation was swept away entirely in some of the longest moments and shortest time that any living man could know.

Shareef felt the Gypsy Star heave upward. For a moment he feared that the good ship would be simply snapped in half in the same way that someone breaks a large branch into small pieces for a fire. But at the top of this tremendous upheaval came a sound which every experience seaman in the ship's company dreaded.

This time, the low creaking sound which seemed to emanate from the ships timbers themselves were joined by an awful cracking and breaking noise. It was a sound that only wood could make, and the sensation of it went through the bodies of the crew just as certainly as it went through the ships timbers themselves as they fought to resist, but failed.

The sound and the sensation struck both the ship and the crew a physical blow, as solid as a blow to the face. But the sensation came with a new sound. This time the timbers around them seemed to explode, and suddenly their whole world was invaded  
by frothing cold seawater and shrieking wind whose claws seemed determined to rip everyone aboard out of the broken wooden shell the same way that a man would eat the meat from a crab leg.

In one terrible moment, there was no more order, there was no organization. The only thing the crew had left were one another, as the ship around them seem to shatter, and fall to bits in the frothing sea.

In that terrible instant, survival became instinct for every man of the crew. No one had to give the most frightening call any sailor could ever hear, but over the course of a few moments, as the Gypsy Star seem to break open around them, it truly was every man for himself.

The enclosed, sordid space that had been Shareef's refuge broke open like a shell of an egg. In an instant, he was literally face-to-face with the typhoon!

The deck above his head, the main deck of the ship had fractured and broken a few feet ahead of him. The break in the hull invaded largely empty space, but as the fetid and familiar air raced out of the small broken space, storm wind and sea water took its place.

The ships broken form heeled over as another set of waves struck at her like a bite of a cobra. What was left of the Gypsy Star suddenly tilted, becoming nearly horizontal in the heaving waves rather than vertical.

The crew's space also held boxes and barrels of sundry provisions and from time to time, valuable items of cargo which had to be held in place with extra lashing. In just a moment, there was cargo and everything else flying through the air in the small broken space. The storm tossed wind that had invaded their home was now filled with dangerous blocks of heavy cargo and dense wood, together with all the splinters that the now broken Hull could heave up as the Gypsy Star died all around them.

One of the heavier chests was wrenched from where it was lashed down. from Its usual place was against what used to be the starboard bulkhead.  
Something in Shareef's thinking mind told him that the contents of the chest belonged to the ship's carpenter. But this made little difference, as the chest seem to be headed directly for his nose!

Shareef's body reacted first. He felt himself leave his feet, rolling in a tight ball across the suddenly splintered space as some reflex he could not imagine allowed him to dodge the flying debris. It sailed out of his sight, and disappeared into the maw of the great dark monster which the storm seem to have become. 

The remainder of the crew was not spared, as the entire ship's company seemed thrown into mid air, some of them threatening to bash their heads on the splintered underside of the main deck, which was the overhead or ceiling of the crew's quarters.

But Shareef had another advantage that no one else in the ship's company shared. Rather than fear, or panic, Shareef felt something instinctual touch his mind, and at the same instant take control of his body.

So while the others around him in the darkened space were fighting to pull panicked breaths out of a space filled with too little air, Shareef decided to use the motion and its energy rather than to fight it or try to push it away. What began as a tightly tucked tumble expanded and extended as he opened his body and spread it out on the air and into the space rolling around him. He felt his unique sandals leave his feet. Just for a moment he was worried, but then something told him that for the moment at least he would be better off without them.

Suddenly he was aware of something else new and different. His vision was filled with a gentle and clear blue light! It cast everything he could see before his eyes in the same gentle blue clarity. What was more, this state of vision also allowed him to see himself, as if he were watching himself from a distance through the eyes of another person.

In a moment he understood exactly where in space he was, exactly what he was doing, and what his body was attempting to do as it sailed in a broader arc over and through the limited space of the broken crew's quarters. 

Before Shareef could think too much, he also felt a familiar stab of excitement flash through him like one of the lightning bolts just beyond the ship. His mind was not sure what this was, nor exactly how it was happening, but he was now sailing through space in the pitch blackness more Sand Cat than Human. The new color of his vision also brought him sharper and more well-defined vision. His instincts told him the crew's quarters was now completely dark, but through the blue field which seemed to fill his eyes, Shareef could see every object, every hammock, every length of rope and chain, and every inch of polished wood which made up the space he knew so very well.

The flowing leap seem to come easily to him, as if the reflexes for it came from somewhere deep within his mind. But not his thinking mind. His higher mind had shut down a few seconds before when the ship had begun her dangerous roll.

Now his motion, and his reaction to it along with his environment seem to flow out of pure instinct. It was a wild, almost electric sensation, like the lightning bolts themselves which now threatened to consume the ship.

His vision and reflexes also allowed him to see the other members of the crew, spilled like dried peas from a barrel, and rolling across the deck of a hold uncontrollably grasping at anything and everything which stood any chance at all of stopping their uncontrolled slide across the deck which was becoming more like a bulkhead, as the ship took on an almost horizontal pitch! 

Shareef instinctively knew to balance his body and twisted slightly as he sailed through the air. He saw very quickly that small motions allowed him to change the point at which is leap was aimed, and as he jumped, rebounded, and leaped again through the air using a huge cask of rum has a combination bulkhead and springboard, Shareef was headed for the bow of the ship, and the tiny deck hatch of the Lazarette!

Even before Shareef's reflexes and his newfound sight could react there was the most horrible loud splintering noise, as the Gypsy Star seemed to crash down again, not into the trough of a wave, but this time on to a gigantic rock! 

A huge spire of stone seem to intrude itself into the space of the cruise quarters through a gaping hole which had been smashed right through the bottom of the hull itself! 

Shareef could both hear and see the unmistakable sound of air and water fighting for balance in the new space that had been opened by the rock, and as foaming green seawater seemed to sweep in and around the spire of rock, it rapidly begin to fill the wooden space with seawater.

Suddenly there was something else that intruded on Shareef's blue colored senses. It was nothing visual, but something else born of the deepest most direct instinct Shareef himself had ever felt. The smashing intrusion of the huge rock forced a change in the direction of the ship, and gave the motion of a tidal surge to the water rising fast in the crew's quarters. Shareef tried to redirect and re-balance himself as his reflexes told him, but this time a deluge of water caught him in midair, washing him down into the salty cold water, and giving him a mighty shove through the space of the crew's quarters, and more forward yet into the space that was occupied by the Lazarette.

Good fortune seem to smile upon him, as the crashing invasion of water into the small space worked like a geyser. Its pressure and force going straight up through the weakest point in the small space. The deck hatch was blown off the ship like a coil of rope washed overboard as the ship grounded. Shareef was picked up and swept through the familiar opening, his body becoming as tight a ball as he could make without breaking his back.

Almost before Shareef could see again through his unusual blue sight, the ship he had known was simply gone, and he was flying through the air above the waves of the tortured ocean. In mid air, he pulled in as deep a breath as he could hold, and after a moment he was in the water again, and swimming for his life!


	4. To the Rescue

Shibu found himself transfixed at the tower window as the sky grew more and more ominous. He became set on watching the dark clouds rolled together in great masses changing color from black to an odd threatening greenish hue.  
Master Chang entered the High tower room with a step so soft, he seemed to float over the floor rather than to walk on the face of the polished marble.

"So you also sense the gathering storm, my young guardian."

Master Chang's question broke Shibu's almost hypnotic concentration on the gathering storm. But when the young Eliotrope finally looked away from the tumult in the sky, he felt no better for it.

"Yes, Master Chang." Shibu replied somewhat absently. "I still feel someone or something out there is in danger somehow." Shibu explained. But then, in a quiet whisper he added another remark. One man for only his Master to hear. "And Master?" Shibu asked.

"What is it Sir Shibu?" Jested the elderly Sage with a precocious smile at his young student.  
"When I look at that storm, I feel...Sick." Shibu confessed to the elderly Sage.

"What you feel, young Shibu is the sort of storm upon which you yourself entered this world." Master Chang replied after a moment's consideration. "You, the storm, and whatever or whoever is entrapped by it, they are all part of yourself, as well as nature." The Sage continued.

"So what you're saying is that something or someone out there needs me. That some part of me is lost in that storm as well." Shibu replied sounding serious in his contemplation.

"Yes, my guardian." Master Chang replied. "Times like these are part of the reason you have been given your unusual gifts. To help others in distress who may not be able to help themselves. That is what I believe, young Shibu."

So saying, the ancient Sage fell silent, as he joined Shibu to gaze out the window at the oily black green clouds that seem to represent the edge of the storm which was now pushing the blue from the skies over the sea near the castle.

Shibu altered his glance from the sky long enough to look upon the coastline of Bonta which could be seen for many miles along the shore because the tower was so high.  
Shibu could see small points of light illuminate one after the other along the edge of the coastline. These lights came from the fires set to huge iron braziers filled with massive logs. The chain of alert fires was one of the kingdoms principal defenses. The advancing line of light also meant that there was a rider, or riders racing along the same coastline, with the alert fires being kindled as they rode past.  
Shibu needed no particular insight to understand what news the messengers would bring. If Shibu's growing abilities served him at all well, he already knew that the one and only news in the kingdom this day worthy of alarm was the gathering storm itself.

Shibu's unease at the sight and sound of the gathering storm grew more palpable as each minute passed. It began as a slightly sour upset feeling in his stomach, and had since grown to be a sensation he could feel in his joints. His knees and shoulders had begun a steady ache, and now looking at the bright flashes which seem to hang around the oily clouds seem to make it harder and harder each and every moment for Shibu to breathe easily. It was the sort of sick worry that Shibu had felt so long ago on his first trip away from the only home he had ever known. But now, that sensation seemed to multiply by the minute, and every minute he could feel it, Shibu felt his strength diminish. At last, he turned away from the window, stepping aside so it would be out of his view as he tried to busy himself unpacking one of the many wooden boxes filled with his favorite books.

But Shibu soon realized that not even these old friends of his could deliver the medicine he needed to feel better. The more and more he tried to arrive at a logical solution for the sudden onset of his illness, the more frustrated he became.

His fine, sharp thinking mind could not conceive of anything he had left undone. In vain, he searched his memory and his mind for some small detail which he might have left unattended.

The boat crews were on station, ready to take to the surf if the final brazier in the long line was lit. The hospital had been moved into the heart of the Keep, and was now staffed by every Enripsa within the city walls. The people of Bonta had surpassed themselves as usual in offering their skills and their labors in what might prove to be a time of true emergency. Some citizens had volunteered along with their wagons as medical transports if the need arose. Other people with medical skills had immediately volunteered for first-aid units, and as nurses to be called upon if needed.

The thought of the kind and generous Bontarian population giving so completely of themselves was the only thing that brought a momentary trace of pleasure to combat Shibu's increasingly sickly sensation as the storm gathered over the ocean, and rolled toward Bonta for all of her populous to see. Shibu's time as a squire had taught him the fine art of waiting. But there was something about this day, this hour, this time which called out to him drawing him in ways he had never felt possible before now. It was an open question in Shibu's mind if the approaching storm or something far beyond it could be blamed for the way Shibu was feeling.

Shibu closed his favorite book and slid it gently back into the wooden box into which it had been originally packed.

He realized that there was no cure for the storm. But the only cure for his worry was activity. Even if that activity had to be extracted at a price from his less than energetic body.

Shibu felt his stomach twist again. But this time there was something else about the sensation. Gently, slowly, and reverently he turned away from the packed box of his favorite books.

"Master, I have to go." Shibu said simply to the elder Sage.

"I understand, Sir Shibu." Master Chang replied simply. The tone of his words carried neither praise nor condemnation.

"It's where I should be." Shibu said. "It's where I have to be." Shibu continued, as he set forth both a realization and a determination.

"Now I hear the voice of a Guardian." Master Chang replied. "Fear naught, I will tell Felice and Cici." The old Sage added. "If we can be of help, send us a signal, and we shall come to you."

Shibu turned back toward the window. The rolling ugly black clouds had added tinges of green and purple to their malevolence. Even from a distance out to sea, Shibu could both see and feel the power of the lightning bolts which seemed to drive the storm.

Shibu drew in a slow, deep breath, marshaling both his strength and concentration. And then his hands moved in a familiar circular pattern that left a vivid blue circle floating in mid air. Shibu jumped through it, and in a moment he was gone.

Master Chang also turned from the window. The elder Sage spoke the words of an ancient Draconic incantation, and in a moment, he too   
disappeared from the tower room.

Cici had been uneasy all morning, and most of the night before. She needed no special magic to know that Shibu had spent a tumultuous night in the face of the gathering storm. She was worried for him even as she went about her duties as Ranger in charge of the Cra detachment for Bonta Castle. She was in the armory, double checking and counting bows and quivers when a familiar figure seemed to unfold itself from the space behind her.  
Bonta's chief Ranger converted a turn into a stately bow and greeted the elder Sage with a smile.

"Greetings, Master." Cici began. "How fares the weather up above?" Cici asked anxiously.

Master Chang's expression changed ever so slightly. He could sense Cici's frustration. Her increase in rank and responsibility often meant that she spent more time indoors, and disconnected from the nature upon which a Ranger had been taught to thrive.

"Ominous, ugly, and dangerous." Master Chang related in a few words. "But as it stands, the danger is no longer as distant as we would like to think."

Cici blinked once as she paused, considering the Sage's cryptic statement. As usual, her emotions and her connections to others were just a bit quicker than her thinking mind.

"It Shibu, isn't it?" Cici retorted almost at once.  
The Cra Ranger needed no answer, for she could see it already in the sparkling silver of the old Sage's eyes.

"His call as a guardian is a strong one. In the teeth of the tempest, he feels someone kindred in danger."

Reflex alone allowed Cici to put the standard bow and light leather quiver she was holding back into the rack from which they had come. Suddenly, there was only one bow, and one archer that mattered to her at all.

"How much of a head start has he got, Master?"

"He's not many minutes gone, but I surmise he will move quickly as a rescue might demand."

"I see." Cici replied simply in the taciturn speech which marked the very best of the female Ranger. 

"Excuse me, my Master, but there is somewhere I must go, and right away." Cici replied.

"I believe our Guardian may be headed out to sea." Master Chang said casually. "Perhaps the best trail to your quarry begins and ends upon the seashore."

Cici paused only long enough to bow from the waist to the elder Sage. Her ultimate sign of respect and veneration.

"Thank you, Master Chang." Cici replied as she stood up straight again and move quickly toward the great wooden doors of the armory. 

"If there be trouble, or danger to one or both of us, I will send an arrow." The red-headed Ranger called back over her shoulder as she dashed through the doors at a Ranger's run. 

Shibu stood on the beach, and look far out to sea, into the malevolent heart of a black creature who seemed to be eating both sky and ocean. It was a terrible sight, as if some great octopus had spewed forth a living cloud of ink, which was now expanding to blot out everything it touched. 

Shibu's stomach knotted at the vision of darkness, and the sight of it made those same stomach muscles cramp so hard that Shibu had to fight to keep from falling to his knees on the sand.

That was how he knew, without a doubt. Whoever it was, they were there, in the jaws of a great dark beast which was slowly spreading itself across the sea and sky.

It was there that Shibu needed to go.

He considered his options for a moment. He could summon one of the rescue boats, and have a crew row him out into the heart of the storm. But to do that would be to risk a valuable boat, and the even more valuable lives of the boat crew whom he would be asking to face the storm with him.

Shibu felt no fear in risking himself. But he also knew deep down inside that he could not ask anyone else to take the same risk. So he had to figure out a way to go alone, and go quickly, for the storm was growing more and more malevolent with every passing moment.

Shibu's mind flashed back quickly to the painted fraise Shibu had seen on the blue stone walls of the catacombs. They showed Eliotrope figures, and portals, the energetic blue circles, arcing across the sky. Part of the legend that accompanied the artwork revealed that this was how his ancestors had mounted to the stars themselves.

Shibu understood how to use his portals to do something very close to the same thing. He could ascend to dangerous heights very quickly, to drop down from above on an enemy. The problem was maintaining enough control to form one last portal while he was close to the ground, and then drop through another only a few inches off the ground, making a soft landing. 

All of these things Shibu had practiced in secret with Master Chang along this very same stretch of beach. Using portals had become second nature to Shibu.

Now as critical moments passed, Shibu had to figure out a way to make the same portals and his reflexes work horizontally, rather than vertically.

He already knew that he could jump through to successive portals placed directly in front of him, and cover the space between those two points in only a fraction of a second. If a succession of vertical portals could take him upward, would a quick succession of horizontal portals allow him to travel in a given direction?

He could see it working in his mind. The portals were like points on a straight line, determining direction, while the rapidity of his own movements governed his speed.

Shibu felt a certain tension along with his thoughts and constructions, as lives depended on each passing moment.  
He would try it, because it was the only answer he had. But something else came to Shibu's mind. Once he started forward, out toward the sea and over the water, his comfortable landing place would be gone if he made a mistake of movement or alignment. Misdirection, or any loss of forward movement would mean he would wind up in the same seawater that was now meat for the awful storm on the horizon.

But in a moment, Shibu's mind was set, as was the technique he could see working in his mind. He took a running start not toward the ocean, but as far back on the sands as he could possibly go, putting the edge of the beach and the tide line as far from him as he possibly could for the moment.

With twenty or so yards of coastal sand under his feet, Shibu felt his body obey the instinct to drop into the classic runners form that had won him so many foot races when he was younger.

There were two things Shibu was good at. Running, and kicking. Now he would combine both combinations of forward movement to save lives from the teeth of the storm at sea. 

Ahead of him just a few feet, he cast his first portal and then roughly twice as far away, he cast a second one, establishing a line toward the ocean.  
Shibu's running take off was flawless, but his forward dive into the first portal came along with the snapping energy of a running kick which carried him further forward by half than just a simple jump.

By the time he was skimming through the second portal, his forward motion was set, and has he crossed the tide line over the water, Shibu threw two more portals. Once again he added the forward snap of his kicking form to his continuous forward motion. As he sailed along over the water, his hands were busy, always casting the next set of portals, so that he could stay airborne, rather than landing in the water.

His reflexes quickly became used to the unusual motion that was needed, and as he became more and more used to casting the portals and snapping forward to dive through them, Shibu could feel himself moving faster and faster, and with more power each passing second.

Shibu poured more and more of his concentration, energy, and strength into the diving leaps which took him farther and farther out to sea. Soon there was no coastline at all to be seen, only endless sheets of blue-green water stretched out endlessly before him to the horizon. He could see clearly ahead, but he dared not look back for fear of breaking his rhythm, to gauge how far he was from the seacoast.

He had given himself the means to travel, but in so doing, had not fixed the site of his destination.

His strong, limber body had fallen easily into the new motion, and could sustain it easily. Shibu took a chance and maintained the motion of forward leap and simultaneous casting long enough to close his eyes. It took only a moment for a familiar blue field to appear before his eyes, replacing is common daytime vision. Shibu allowed himself to see through the flow of Wakfu around him, and his enhanced vision quickly showed him something he had not seen before. Slightly off to his left, Shibu caught sight of a knobby rock whose rounded shape protruded just enough above the water for him to stand upon!

This was surely no place to stay, but it could be a place to rest for a moment, and survey the surrounding sea for anyone in trouble.

His next portal appeared directly over the bulbous rock, and Shibu dropped to its wet surface in an easy crouch that both stopped his forward motion, and allowed his body to gather itself after an exhilarating journey from the beach.

He was gently reminded about the nature of his perch as a fine, gentle wave of water washed over the top of the rock, wet Shibu's toes through his unique shoes, and slid back into the sea.

It seemed he had come some distance, as there were no more details to be discerned on the distant horizon which had become an ugly threatening sheen of ink black clouds broken only by mammoth lightning bolts!

Shibu quickly turned his blue colored field of vision to the left, and then to the right. In each direction he paused looking deeply into the heart of what was fast becoming the churning sea and the black sky.

Then, as he looked off to the right, he spotted a shape rising from the ocean which did not match any of the rocks which made up the shoal not far distant. These rocks were towering masses and spires of stone which were once part of an ancient coastline. The sea had made its inroads, cutting the rocks away as the coastline eroded over countless ages, leaving the sea sculpted rocks like a line of teeth along what was left of the outline of the ancient coast.

Shibu had to look twice to be certain of what he saw. But his sight, no matter its color was true, as was the sight before his eyes across the shoal nearby.

Crowning one of the largest rocks jutting from the sea was the discernible shape of a ship's hull, or rather the back half of it, as it had been driven down onto the rocks, and was now being literally chewed up by an ever angrier sea.

But out of the corner of his eye, Shibu caught sight of a small line of wake in the water not far from the shoal itself. The outline of the loan swimmer fleeing the wreck brought Shibu another twist to his queasy stomach. But this time, the sensation also came with a charged burst of energy that could rival anything which the storm's lightning bolts could serve up.

Shibu didn't know how, or understand why, but in one leaping bound Shibu was up again, casting portals and vaulting forward, making for the wayward swimmer rather than the shell of the wreck scattered across the shoal!

Shibu's knotted and queasy feeling seemed to leave him this time as he flew forward, toward the figure in the water, arching over an increasingly threatening sea, whose choppy waves were now threatening to drown the lone swimmer.

Shibu twisted his body a bit, changing the arc that would put him almost on top of the swimmer. His last jump was as on target as one of the shots from his bow, and Shibu found himself passing over his intended target.

Shibu risked the rhythm which kept him above the water long enough to reach down and take a solid grip on the rope belt which wound around the swimmer's middle. He was able to lift the white figure from the water, and as the swimmer's body relaxed, Shibu was able to tuck him and himself into the next pair of portals he cast.

Shibu and his unintended passenger had one more bit of luck this day, as the craggy edge of the shoal now offered many larger places where both of them could land without being immediately whisked back into the sea by the rising angry water.

Shibu cast two more portals, one slightly higher, and one below it, just a few inches above a flat spot on a huge ridge of rock that jutted up from the sea.

The two figures landed there a moment later, and both swimmer and rescuer needed a moment to pull a full, salty breath from the sea air.

Shibu glanced at the swimmer, and for just a moment, his life itself stopped. The reality of the storm and the salt water faded away. All that Shibu could see seemed to shrink into nonexistence.   
But in a supreme moment of compensation, what Shibu could feel multiplied like the number of water drops that surrounded both of them. 

Shibu's mind was as suddenly as open as his heart, and across his very soul, there flowed a second stream of being and memories, as Shibu and the white clad figure traded lives across a pure impulse  
of united existence!

For Shibu, the event came as if a dozen kaleidoscopes blossomed across his inner sight. Then, they all rolled at once, each fragment of shared memory founding a new cornerstone of a reality, both present and long passed.

In just a moment, the combined visions were gone from his sight, but Shibu could remember each of them in turn with a clarity that only came with living memories, imprinted on both mind and soul in a moment that united them far beyond the time and place in which they found themselves.

With their momentary safety assured, Shibu could also look to the physical state of the rescued figure.

Shibu flipped his palm up and outward slightly, casting a shield of familiar blue light to deflect the water and salt spray. Then, Shibu paused, to cast an odd glance at the palm of his own hand.

How had he done that?

He quickly decided that it didn't matter for the moment, as there were greater things still at issue. Explanations could wait. But the two of them could not.

The swimmer was hopelessly waterlogged, and as Shibu sat him down on the small outcropping, the endless flow of excess water got its first chance to drain away. 

What the water left behind was the outline of a boy, rather than a sodden bale of white rags. The refugee from the waves was much like himself, only a bit larger than he, and certainly wetter. His feet were bare, and he wore an outfit of unique white linen, with a water soaked headdress which matched. The rope belt around his waist had saved his life. Shibu's level gaze looked for the first time into a fine handsome face colored with deep olive skin, and framed by hair as white as any snow Shibu had ever seen. 

For another moment filled with indescribable magic, Shibu felt his chest tighten, and the sandy dryness that overtook his mouth was not born of the salty water. Shibu didn't know why, or understand how, but in that moment,a feral impulse flashed over Shibu like the fire from a torch blown back on its holder by a caprice of the wind. It was as direct and powerful an impulse as his own will for self preservation. But its overwhelming power spoke directly to Shibu's most basic instincts.

Shelter.

Protect.

The Guardian nature in him spoke out directly, and nothing in life itself could bar Shibu from complete,willing but gentle obedience. 

Shibu's mission in this moment became to save the life he had plucked from the sea. He laid the white clad figure down stretching him out fully. Shibu took hold of the white clad arms, and raised them quickly above the white headdress, and then lowering the figure's limp arms once more, so that his hands were over his heart. The gentle arc of the arm motion created a pumping motion that expelled a small wave of seawater from the mouth of the white clad swimmer. 

Shibu heard his passenger's first breath followed by an ominous gurgle of water. Quickly, Shibu turned him over on his side, and administered several firm pats to the white clad figure's back.

The coughing fit that followed spewed out seawater, and the next breath Shibu heard his guest take was filled with air, rather than water.  
Shibu began to sit him up, so he could try to bring his unscheduled passenger back to his senses. But as he turned the olive skinned figure around, sitting down with him and holding him steady, Shibu saw the white cloth the other figure was wearing turn translucent in the water, and as it stuck to his back, great deep scars seemed to leap up from the fine olive skin, allowing Shibu could see the scars with a stark and awful clarity!

Shibu had seen these wounds before, in the medical books kept by his mother. The scars cut vertically across his shoulders, and then followed his torso down to his waist. Instantly, Shibu could recognize them for what they were.

The scars from a whip!

All manner of emotions flooded Shibu senses. But the first and strongest of these came from the Sea Dragon inside him.  
Shibu's first impulse was compassion. This was not the time nor the place for questions as such.   
The rescued swimmer needed more help than Shibu knew how to give. More than once, Shibu had wished to share the healing skills of the Enripsa.

Shibu dropped his head closer to the sodden swimmer, and whispered gently into his ear.

"Don't worry, I have you, and you're safe." Shibu said in a whisper that would be heard over the crashing of the surf against the nearby rocks.

But Shibu was even more surprised, as the swimmer drew another deep breath, turned his head, and looked at Shibu with a pair of fine green eyes that were clouded with a muddy light.

"My Captain." The boy in white gasped." Please, please, save my Captain!"


	5. Safe Harbor

Safe Harbor

Shibu took a moment to look away from the olive skinned figure, and toward the shoal not far away. It was an angry looking group of rocks, made even more angry in fact by the rising water, crashing waves, and the increasing thunder of the approaching storm.  
Rescuing anyone from what was left of the ship while seeing to it that his first rescue was not in vain was more than Shibu could accomplish alone.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine along with the other crew, I promise. But for now, I need more help." Shibu told the green eyed refugee in the same gentle whispered tone he had used before.

But as he stood up from talking to the white clad survivor, Shibu watched as a series of thrashing waves broke over the shoal, not only over the ancient rocks, but over the higher point where the ship's hull was jammed onto the teeth of the shoal. The sea was rising fast, and becoming more violent. Shibu hadn't taken these things into account, and in a moment, even in the somewhat wider ridge of rocks on which they stood, Shibu came to realize that he no longer had the space for the type of running start that would allow both of them to escape the edge of the shoal and fly again over the water!

It took Shibu just a moment to fight down a sudden squeeze of panic that sent a finger of cold down his back, even in the midst of the frothing seawater. He hadn't brought them both here to die, like the broken ship upon the rocks.

The white clad survivor had gathered enough strength to stay seated on the edge of the line of rocks which jutted from the sea. Shibu touched him gently on the shoulder, and the white haired boy managed to look around at him with a brief smile. There was something in the expression which instantly restored Shibu's confidence.

They could not go back the way they had come, but Shibu also understood that he was neither alone nor helpless in the situation. He took a half step away from his white clad charge, thrust his arm skyward and with a growl of defiance which matched the roaring sea a mighty column of pure blue light shot into the dark sky! It's power and brightness momentarily peeled back the inky black hopelessness of the storm which seemed ready to pounce upon the two of them like a wild beast stalking its prey.

As the small ridge of rock at the edge of the shoal was bathed in blue light, something deep in Shibu's heart whispered to him that his gesture could be seen by other sets of eyes ashore.

Standing together at the tide line of the surf, two of the members of the boat crew jumped back in fright as they saw a towering blue column of light peel back the forward edge of the storm.  
A commanding and confident voice drove away the fear, and brought them back to duty.

"Man your oars, and make for the blue light,fast!" The redheaded Cra Archer commanded.

The sound and the feeling of an order was all the group of oarsmen needed. They moved quickly and efficiently toward the rescue boat, with the fiery redheaded Cra being the last aboard, but not the least, as it was she who gave crew and boat together a strong push out into the surf itself.

Cici took her place in the bow, in part so that the boat crew would have room to row without her in the way. But she wanted to get as close to that blue light as she could, even within the limits of the longboat. She had already set piercing green eyes at the base of the blue column of light, which lingered like a signal arrow over one spot. It was unmoved by wind, nor by the visible squall of rain which seem to come up over the rocky shoal with dangerous speed.

The experienced boat crew turn to their work almost as one man, and very quickly the rescue boat seem to be flying across the face of the water like an arrow sped from her bow. A shot in the face to a deadly adversary that now threatened one of her own.

But Cici could not afford to sight see. The rescue boat was a unique craft, the bow where she sat was also home to two large wooden chests. The one on the left side, or port side was filled with the unique tray which fed out long serpentine skeins of heavy rope. Cici took the end of it, where it fed through special holes in the side of the chest, and routed the heavy rope through a pair of heavy iron locks mounted at the very tip of the bow. She put a loose knot at the very end of the rope just to keep it where it was while they were still in calm water, as Cici reached for the chest on the starboard, or right-hand side. 

No sooner had she lifted the lid than her eyes fell on exactly what she wanted, and exactly what Shibu might need all too soon. Laying on top of the other trays deeper in the chest there was a pair of unique arrows. These were longer, and heavier by far than cloth yard shafts, because they were not made of wood at all, but of iron. The head of these arrows was unique, for behind a head shaped more like a small mace, the arrow shaft bore a collar welded onto it. The metal ring bore an open loop, meant for a line. Cici secured the line from the chest to the iron arrow.

She slid her own bow from her shoulder, holding both iron arrow and bow in one hand. Cici tensed, as if she herself was part of the iron arrow to be knocked into the bow.

Even with the excellent work of the boat crew, once they were clear of the seacoast, it seemed to Cici like the storm itself conspired to push them away and back to where they had come. Cici could feel the half dozen oarsmen pulling for all their worth, just in the same way she knew they had trained over these very same waters.

The waters became more choppy, as competing currents in the water seem to fight for the favor of the monstrous storm that pushed them forward. The rescue boat crested a high wave, and ducked down sharply with the heavy splash as the oarsmen kept her going forward at speed. 

The breakthrough seem to help the boat crew pick up the speed of the current around the storm. In a few seconds time, they were making fast for the shoal, where the blue column of light was as bright and steady as any sunrise the boat's crew had ever seen.

Cici knew all too well what the light really was, and what the cost was to Shibu for producing it. The fact that the blue column seemed to push back against the ugly black of the storm surge in the sky filled Cici with admiration and hope.

Suddenly, there were only a few tens of yards remaining until the outside range of the iron arrow and the rescue line. Cici began a count backward, tracking both distance and time. She had already calculated what the perfect shot would be. All she needed now was the correct moment to shoot, and the right target.

Cici kept counting backward, even as her keen eyes scanned the Rocky shoal which could be more and more clearly seen with every measured stroke from the oarsmen. Cici caught the outline of one familiar figure dressed as always in vivid red and silver trim, at the base of a lasting column of steady blue light. The light cast away the murky darkness brought by the storm, and restored something close to normal sky close in to the edge of the shoal.

Cici took a chance and took a knee as far forward in the bow as she could go. But the shoal ahead of her was broken and rocky, not a friendly place for the friendliest of arrowheads. But then, a flash as brilliant as the blue light itself came to Cici. 

The other end of the shoal was covered with debris from a shipwreck!

That was there hope, and that was their anchor!

When Cici's backward count ended, she pulled a calm breath from the storm tossed air around them, and let the iron arrow fly.

There was a pleasant, singing sound from the chest of rope as the iron arrow sped toward its target. Cici had aimed at the largest most solid bit of wood she could see. Most of the aft end of the wrecked ship was still there, in spite of the fact that she had been driven right down onto a solid spire of rock, never to move again. Her arrow found the wooden ship's hull just below the aft railing on what was left of her port quarter.

No one had to tell Cici that the shot was solid. The taught single line of rope which now led from the rescue boat to the wreck was testimony enough.

Even before the oarsmen could ship their oars, Cici was standing up and had a hold of the rope. She swung up onto it, or more correctly underneath it, wrapping her arms and legs around the lifeline as she used both hands and feet to move along the taught length of the rope.  
They were about thirty yards off of the rocky shoal when Cici swung up and away. Making that distance along the line was no more than extended practice for the Cra Ranger. 

In less than a minute, there was no more Blue water beneath her feet, only craggy and sea swept rocks. She turned her head as best she could, looking for a landing place away from the capricious sweep of the building storm waves. She saw one where three or four of the ship's splintered hull planks had bridged an opening between rocks in the shoal and the sea itself. She let go with her feet, and hung on the line, progressing hand over hand until she was more certain of her landing point. 

When she knew where she was, and where she would be, Cici turned loose, and with an acrobatic tuck and roll to govern her speed, she landed up standing on the broken planks from the ship's hull.

Her first instinct was to turn, and signal to Shibu whom she could now see only a few tens of yards away under a brilliant column of familiar blue light. Shibu returned the signal with his free hand, and the source of the blue column of light faded from his palm. Cici was slightly worried when she saw Shibu sink to his knees and stay there for just a moment.

But Cici knew that her work was only half done, and she drew an arrow from her quiver and aimed upward at the iron arrow embedded in the remains of the ship's hull.

Her shot was perfect, and the arrow with a line attached fell away from the ship and onto the shoal, with a long length of line attached, which came down very near to her feet. Cici picked up the line and ran it around behind her back in a half loop before she began to use her body as a brace on the rocks, pulling as hard as she could to both anchor the boat for the moment and to help guide them in. Cici let the rope pay out a little at a time until she could grab the iron arrow to which it was attached. Looking about quickly, she saw a small gap between two heavy sheets of rock. She could feel the rush of air out of the small gap where the waves would come up every once in a while blowing out a small fountain of seawater. Cici kept hold of the rope and the arrow, jamming the width of the mace-like arrowhead between the small space between the heavy sheets of solid rock. Cici gave the shaft a twist, and the length of the iron shaft was locked into the small space. Cici grabbed hold of the rope attached to the arrow, removed it from her waist with a half turn of her body, and looped the rope itself around the iron shaft embedded between the rocks. From there Cici gathered the line, then tossed a broad loop of it around one of the massive columns of rock that looked like large Dragon's teeth. With the rope secured around the rock, Cici did one of the things she did best.

She pulled!

As the smooth woven rope slid around the wet rock, Cici used all her strength to help land the rescue boat. She was glad, but very tired indeed when she heard the crew of oarsmen ship oars, and let go a special sea anchor that found a notch in the rock that would hold the boat in place.

"Take hold the line!" Cici shouted out loud, roaring more like the storm to make herself heard and understood. "Hold us here, and I'll get a line to them!"

The three largest oarsmen in the boat crew took the line from Cici, freeing her to move closer to the short gap between the teeth of the rocky shoal.

Rather than reach to her quiver for another arrow, this time Cici's hands moved to her belt where she unclipped a curved wooden form that was unlike any arrowhead she had ever used. It took only a moment to tie a fine line from the pouch on her belt to the oddly curved wooden shape. As she drew back her arm to throw it, she also pulled out a good length of line. Then she let fly again! The sleek, flat wooden shape spun in flight, staying stable and taking a fine line with it as it flew, straight for Shibu. He had invented the flat, strangely curved wooden plaything after another one of his vivid dreams. Cici had seen its worth at once, and now Shibu's own invention could become a key to saving his own life.

Shibu saw his rescue coming, and plucked the curved piece of wood from the air with a one-handed grasp. Instantly, Cici felt a strong pull, as more and more of the fine line was pulled from her pouch across the open space to where Shibu stood.

In a moment, the curved shape was flying directly back toward Cici,  
Cici caught it in mid-air, and ran with it toward the spot where the boat crew still held their good ship at anchor.

"One of you three!" Cici snapped at the unoccupied oarsmen. "Cast me another line!"

One of the oarsmen jumped to, and scrambled over the rocks toward the boat, and pulled another line from the chest of ropes in the bow of the boat. He returned with a line quickly. Cici wove her own line in with the rope. It took only a moment to find another gap in the rocks which would secure the second arrow. And as if by magic there was a working loop of stout rope between the boat, the oarsmen, two anxious Rangers, and one castaway! 

Cici exhaled a relieved breath once she saw the path in rope set up between the rescue crew, Shibu and his charge.

The roundabout circle of rope actually formed a sort of bridge between two distant points on the rocky shoal. Cici was the first to test the tension of the rope bridge, and one she was satisfied with its solid nature, Cici waved quickly at Shibu.

The red and silver Eliotrope lost not a moment. He turned quickly to the white clad green eyed boy he had plucked from certain death in the ocean.

"I'm sorry we don't have time to do this more gently." Shibu whispered into his ear as their cheeks touched. The olive skinned boy was chilled to the touch, but his cheek was as smooth as satin. He said nothing, but gave Shibu a quick smile which lit up his face, and whose warmth restored the remainder of Shibu's confidence for what lay ahead.

Shibu's belt was made of the same red material with silver trim as the rest of his hood and outfit. There was only one way he knew to pick up and carry someone whom he was unsure would be able to walk. Shibu stepped closer to the boy in white, who was a half a head taller than Shibu himself. Quickly, Shibu wrapped one arm around the rope belt which he had used to pull the white clad figure from the seething ocean. With his other hand, he quickly loosened the tension on the ring that was the buckle of his own red belt. Rather than let it drop away, Shibu pulled on the silver ring, extending his belt to its full length. As quickly as he was able, he brought both ends of his own belt around the small of the back of the boy in white, and quickly refastened the belt, drawing it tight by passing it twice through the silver ring.

"I apologize if this is uncomfortable, but I'm not sure I could carry you safely." Shibu explained.

For the first time, the boy in white tried to reply to the whisper in his ear. But his voice issued only a scratchy sound that gave no discernible words. Shibu understood that the boy in white could not speak because his throat had been burned by throwing up a large quantity of seawater. In the end, he smiled that handsome white smile of his, and nodded understanding to Shibu.

"Grab me, around the shoulders and across the back with your arms. Don't hang on to my neck, cross your hands over my shoulders. You won't hurt me, and no matter what, do not let go. We're going to go hand over hand along the rope line, until we cross over to the rock next to us." Shibu explained slowly in a gentle calm whisper that he knew the other boy in white could understand.

"Are you ready?" Shibu asked, bracing himself.

The boy in white nodded vigorously, and quickly he obeyed, crossing his arms over Shibu's shoulders so his hands were in the middle of Shibu's back. To Shibu's surprise, the boy in white also brought his legs up, and wrap them securely around Shibu's waist. In this way, he was a smaller more compact shape that helped Shibu balance as he moved to reach for the white rope line. To his own surprise, Shibu found his passenger surprisingly strong and subtle. The boy in white held onto him not out of panic nor fear but with a firm touch that let him control his position, and help Shibu to balance as he grasped the rope line with his hands and feet, and began a slow hand over hand journey along the taught rope, effectively with the boy in white wrapped around his chest and torso.

Had he been alone with Cici, the passage would have been as direct as a single thought. Shibu would've simply portaled from one point to another without giving it a second thought. But the presence of the boy in white, and the boat crew meant that Shibu had to hide away his true nature, even in this critical moment.

The endless pounding of the surf against the rocks of the shoal had opened up a wide gap between one set of large rocks where Shibu and the white clad boy stood, and the other end of the shoal, where even larger rock formations gave the impressions of Dragon's teeth rising up out of the water.

For Cici, there was no tension or worry in what Shibu was doing, for the two of them had practiced it as Rangers until it became second nature. What did worry the redheaded archer was a fact almost a simple as the brutality of the rising storm itself.

Their enemy now was time. The storm which had destroyed the ship blasted kindling over the rocks. But the storm was quickly bound to overtake a large outcrop of rocks in mid-ocean. Once the full fury of the storm overtook the shoal, no amount of power, from Shibu or the oarsmen in the boat would be able to save them from suffering the same fate as the ship dashed to pieces not far away. Working together, they had only a few minutes to leave the rocky outcrop, board the rescue boat, up anchor, and pull for the shore because their lives depended upon it.

Cici watched with admiration as Shibu made the crawl along the rope seem easy, with more than double his own weight across his chest and torso. Shibu's draconic strength flowed like a deep River of fire through the bronzed skinned Eliotrope.

Cici could not remember a single time that Shibu had used his strength or other abilities simply to show off, or even to impress his own family. The dark-haired boy wearing red and silver had come to his own discipline about the use of his abilities, and moments like this, when another life depended upon it, Shibu could bring the skills of his birthright out of hiding. But he was also circumspect and cautious about allowing other people to see too much. That might lead to one too many questions, and the truth of his abilities when told, would be more dangerous than any story he might make up to cover for them.

But as he crawled across the rope, the only thing that mattered to Shibu was seeing the white clad figure tucked into his chest to safety. Anything Shibu needed to do to accomplish this was considered fair game. This was an emergency, and Shibu would look for explanations if pressed for them later on.

Shibu had taken to rope climbing practice with the same gusto and single-minded discipline that governed his use of the bow. He had practiced such long hours on the rope, that is hands, in spite of becoming heavily calloused still bled at some soft spots on his palms and fingertips. But both Felice and Cici had been there, Enripsa brushes and ranger remedies always on call, so that Shibu could apply is driven Draconic nature to becoming the very best rope climber he could be. When it had come time for the two of them to practice together, it was Shibu who was most often the passenger, hanging onto Cici as she climbed and scaled the rope, up trees, and crossing between distant and separate branches to get Shibu used to the climbing sensation and to build the climbing reflexes into his mind and body.

After the end of their first week, where Cici had taught Shibu every knot and every use of the rope that she knew, Shibu's turn finally came.  
Cici's first surprise that morning had come with her first glimpse of Shibu's climbing rig. She had never imagined anything like it, but the simplicity of Shibu's alternative harness made Cici even more proud of Shibu's skills.

Her dark-haired student Ranger had improvised a new harness, one that crisscrossed his torso, over his back and across his chest, to tie like a belt at his waist. All he did to join Cici to him was to use one of the iron carabiners to clip their harnesses together over their hearts. Cici was speechless on the way up, mostly because Shibu's climb began with a nearly vertical leap that let Shibu put twice Cici's own height between the two of them and the ground. Before Cici could grasp where she was, Shibu was using his arms and legs, his body flexing at the waist to climb the rope more quickly than Cici would've thought possible, given their combined weight and balance. But this was one of those rare moments where Shibu brought out some of his natural abilities, to test the new harness, 

In just over three quarters of the normal time for the crawl along the rope, Cici and Shibu were rappelling down the other side of the course, Shibu's climbing shoes bouncing the two of them along the rope, and out away from the tree as the two of them dropped to the ground smoothly in a quick but controlled fall. Once their feet hit the ground, Shibu simply pulled the iron carabiner which joined the harnesses up and away, setting the paired climbers free of each other, and leaving both free to move. Shibu had once again masterfully stolen Cici's breath away, both with his inventiveness, and the application of the skills and strength which were his birthright. Back then, she had simply picked up Shibu like a bag of oats and simply hugged him until her black haired student simply melted like fresh butter.

Now as the group faced the ultimate emergency, in the teeth of a storm like none of them had ever seen or imagined, Shibu made it look more than easy when he had to, in order to save precious time, and precious lives.

Shibu's almost feline balance, and the applied strength of his arms and legs seem to take him over the rope line as if he himself were floating in the water below them rather than hanging onto a rope.

As Shibu, and his white clad passenger arrived at the far end of the rope line, Cici was there, her knife drawn, and swiftly using her short blade to sever the ties between the two figures fastened to the rope.  
Both Shibu and his olive skinned friend landed on their feet, with not even the slightest trace of worry or imbalance.

"Hurry up boys!" Cici called to them both, using a louder voice now to be heard over the rising Howell of the storm wind off of the water around the shoal.

"The storm is here, and we shouldn't be. Head for the boat!"

Cici's final call was also pointed at the three oarsmen who were anchoring one end of the rope bridge. The three sailors dropped the white line, leaving it on the shoal, as they turned and raced for the longboat, seemingly only one or two steps ahead of the black beast that was the storm at sea.

They were in such a hurry, that they dropped the anchor, and had their oars out and pulling away from the rocks as Cici gathered up Shibu and the boy in white, and tucked them safely down onto the floor of the longboat while tossing a blanket over both of them.

The boat crew of six seem to row more like a dozen as the longboat shot away from the shoal as if it'd been swiped by the dark and of the stone itself. Almost before Cici could look up and around, they were 50 yards off of the rocks, and slashing at a fast clip through the choppy waves back toward the coastline.

There was no reason for them to hold back anymore, as the boat crew understood in the same way Cici did, that this time, they were rowing for their very lives.

Cici could barely make out the beach of Bonta as a narrow cream-colored line in what seemed to be a green ocean.

In the bottom of the longboat, Shibu was far from idle. As the thick, soft blanket came down over both of them, Shibu noticed that the white haired boy with a nice smile had begun to shake and shiver nearly uncontrollably!

Shibu pulled down and in, bringing the full size of the blanket in and around both of them, and using the extra material like a towel in order to dry the smooth olive skin, now lumpy and coarse with heavy goose bumps.

Shibu had seen this before as well. His time training was Cici as a Ranger, and in part his own experience from the night he became an Archer had taught Shibu the odd but life-threatening sensation that took over a body when it's temperature dropped too low too quickly.

For Shibu, the solution was as rapid as his rope climb, and his natural as his commitment to save life.

Beneath the blanket, and beginning at his feet, Shibu began to remove and cast aside the soaking wet white linen outfit and rope belt the swimmer had been wearing for too long. The rising wind and too much time on the rocks had cooled his body too quickly, and getting out of the sopping wet, cold clothes that weighed him down and kept him cold was now a matter of life and death for the survivor from the shattered ship.

There was no time to be graceful, nor any moment to ask permission, so Shibu did what came naturally' and wound up stripping off the cold, wet linen, and the water swollen rope belt by simply grabbing them in turn, and using his natural Draconic strength to simply tear them away from the over chilled body now seizing next to him beneath the blanket.

Shibu tore it all away, throwing it to one side beneath the blanket like so much tattered cloth from the ship's sails.

The olive skin survivor wore a cut down loincloth, also made of the same material. Only this, and his unique headgear did Shibu leave untouched. Moving quickly beneath the blanket, where he could feel the heat of his own body as his Draconic physiology shed the cold and the water, Shibu got an idea. He reached out and gently grasped the olive skin boy across the shoulders, pulling him into his own chest as he lay on his side beneath the blanket. It took only a moment for Shibu to kick off his unique shoes and after unfastening the ring on his belt, the rest of his own red and silver clothing slid off as easily as droplets of water seemed to roll away in fear of his warmer bronze skin.

Shibu pressed his warm and dry body against the violently shivering form whose white teeth were now chattering uncontrollably as well, adding to the out-of-control vibration which now threatened to take his life.

Shibu grabbed him, and held onto him, as if he meant to prevent anyone, anywhere from taking the life he had saved. He reached up now, pulling more of the blanket down and around both of them. Shibu felt better when he could feel the heat slowly return to the other body as Shibu shared his own body heat with the olive skinned figure.  
At first, his shivering was fearful, his entire body seeming to seize up. For just a moment, Shibu wondered if he was still breathing, but he was overjoyed a moment later when he heard a heavy exhale passed through the chattering teeth with a slight whistle.

As they lay pressed together beneath the blanket in battle against the cold, Shibu took it into his head to begin to talk gently to the other boy. This time there was no roaring surf, no noise of wind to separate them from a quiet whisper that Shibu poured into the olive skinned ear as he held the other figure so much like himself even closer.

"Don't worry." Shibu said with quiet confidence. "I have you, you're safe, and I'm getting you warmed up." Shibu whispered gently to his companion in cold. 

In the midst of the shaking, Shibu thought that he felt a twitch of confirmation from the white haired boy.

Then, from between the chattering teeth, or perhaps in spite of them, parts of a single word flowed into the warming space beneath the blanket.

"Sha-sha- Sha-reef." The white haired figure seemed to stammer, even as his body began to relax slightly and the seizures began to subside just a bit.

"Shareef." Shibu whispered. "My name is Shibu. You are in Bonta, and you are going to live, I promise."

Shibu saw the white haired head twitch once more in a nod of understanding. But this time no words followed. This time, the olive skinned survivor reached out, wrapped his arms around Shibu's torso, and pulled him close, until his own white haired head was tucked against Shibu's chest, and under his chin.

Shibu copied the gesture, and the two curled up as if they were in an egg together. But it was Shibu's heart that skipped a beat when he heard Shareef's breath change to a softer more steady rhythm, and as the last of his shivering seizures passed away, Shibu could tell that Shareef had fallen asleep, warm and perfectly still at last, cuddled up next to Shibu.


	6. Warmer Climates

Cici was sitting on one of the board like benches that spanned the width of the longboat. She had also opted for one of the blankets, as the effect of the cold sea spray churned up by the storm also had a lesser but noticeable effect on her own more hearty physiology.  
Cici felt a familiar hand grasp the toe of one of her boots, and squeeze lightly.

Cici looked down to see Shibu's face, along with one arm and shoulder peeking out from under the blanket she had thrown over both of the longboat's most important passengers.

"Hey, sis?" A familiar voice called up gently to her.

Cici was surprised to see not only Shibu's face, but to notice that most of his familiar red and silver wardrobe was missing from his torso.

"Hey Shibu!" She replied stopping short all of a sudden as she noticed her brothers state of undress. 

"Hey, what happened to your clothes?" She asked.

"I had to take them off to warm him up. Toss me down another blanket, will you please?" Shibu asked as if he was inquiring about the weather.

"Sure, little brother, hang on just a second." Cici replied as she reached over and opened the supply chest on the other side of the bow.

In a moment she turned back toward him, passing him a neatly folded square of woolly softness. "There you go, Ranger." Cici replied with a smile.

Shibu could tell by the look on Cici's face that she still didn't quite understand what was going on.

"I've got him warmed up, and asleep down here." Shibu explained quickly. "But most of his clothes were shredded. I need something to wrap him in until we can get him into the hospital in the castle." Shibu explained simply.

"Oh, all right." Cici replied somewhat hesitantly. "We'll have to keep him covered up somehow, I suppose." The Cra Ranger continued. 

Then it struck her after a moment. Their guest rescued from the shoal wasn't the only one without much camouflage, as the Cra would say among themselves.

"Hey! That covers him, but what about you?" Cici wondered out loud.

"My clothes are fine. My Silks shed water almost as well as I do. I'll be dry and dressed again by the time we get back to the beach." Shibu answered without a trace of shame or any false modesty.

Cici had to smile. Shibu's lack of what some would call modesty would certainly offend even some of the most liberal Bontarians. But Shibu was always just Shibu, and the presence or lack of clothing or anything else never changed what he was on the inside, in spite of some of his hidden secrets on the outside.

"Okay little brother." Cici said at last. "He's more your size than mine, so unless you need my help, I'll just leave him to you." Cici added.

"I'll wrap him in the dry blanket, to keep the wind off of him, and keep him away from prying eyes. Once he's in the hospital, his clothes won't matter, and we can make him something new and better to wear while he recovers."

This bit of explanation broadened Cici's smile.

Even in a longboat, racing the worst storm anyone had ever seen, Shibu's first thought was for others beyond himself. The olive skin boy rescued from the ship probably had nothing left in this world. Circumstances had even taken his basic clothing from him, but Shibu was being Shibu. The Guardian in him had already taken the storm tossed stranger beneath his wing. Shibu gave no thought to money, nor thanks, nor any kind of remuneration from the castaway. Shibu's first job as a Guardian, and his first most natural impulse was to take care of the weak and helpless, no matter what was required of him.

Shibu and the folded blanket disappeared beneath the blanket over the top of both of them, and Cici watched the blanket on top undulate as Shibu spread out the dry blanket underneath, and then gently rolled the sleeping castaway into its soft folds. Shibu both wrapped and rolled the sleeping form gently until Shareef was wearing the blanket as much as any set of clothes.

After a minute or two, Shibu peeled back the blanket that Cici had tossed over both of them, to reveal Shibu dressed in his red and silver outfit, and sitting in the bottom of the longboat, gently holding up a blanket wrapped figure who now had only his face exposed to the weather.

"Say now, nice job little brother." Cici said by way of complement as she looked at the efficient wrapping job, which Shibu had accomplished with nothing but folds and tension in the blanket.

"Can you manage to pick him up, Sis?" Shibu asked. "He's a little bigger than I am, and I don't want to spoil his welcome to Bonta by dropping him before we can get him into the hospital."

The statement, and Shibu's accompanying smile made Cici laugh right out loud, even as the longboat crew still pulled for their lives toward the approaching beach.

"Okay, little brother, I can manage that, no problem." Cici replied confidently. The redheaded Ranger stood up, still balanced perfectly even as the longboat raced over the waves, and knelt beside Shibu in the bottom of the boat to pick up the gently sleeping, blanket wrapped form of the white haired castaway.

"His name is Shareef, by the way." Shibu added nonchalantly.

"Little brother, you're amazing! Did you get his home address too?" Cici asked facetiously.

"My home is his home, from now on, for as long as he wants." Shibu said directly. "I don't quite understand how yet, but he and I are connected somehow." Shibu explained evenly.

"Ah, I see." Cici answered. You think Shareef here is the one you are feeling in danger?"

Shibu nodded vigorously. "Yes, I do." Shibu responded. "I think he needs me somehow, and I think we need each other." Shibu added.

"That's our handsome Sea Dragon, coming to the rescue once again!" Cici remarked, with a tone of pride in her voice that Shibu couldn't possibly miss.

Shibu was smiling modestly as Cici sat down again on the board bench of the longboat. She held the wrapped form of Shareef gently across her lap. After they were settled, Shibu sat down beside them. He leaned deeply into Cici's waist, and hugged her warmly as the longboat drew near the beach at last. Their sturdy craft came ashore with a solid thump. The boat crew and it's trio of passengers moved suddenly as one as the six oarsman and their rescued charges all broke and raced for their very lives, directly up the beach toward a large, heavy wood and iron door which was pushed open to receive the group by a trio of Royal guards.

It took almost the full strength of the nine men to pull the door shut against the power of the howling storm which seemed to chace all of them back into the Castle keep. The members of the boat crew were assisted by the Royal guards, almost instantly having become patients in the temporary hospital.

Cici and Shibu automatically broke into the ranger Run and were met at once by another group of familiar figures. Shareef was swept onto a stretcher and carried by four orderlies to the closest emergency bed.  
Cici and Shibu sank onto the first bed they could reach, as their limbs seemed to become lead rather the customary iron that seemed to serve them so well.   
There, life itself seemed to pause for just a moment, as Nature extracted an overdue payment for an ocean of tension nearly as vast as the raging sea still lashing the shoals beyond the protection of stone walls and wooden door. Cici tried to stand and compose herself, but her body seemed to mutiny, and she dropped heavily back to the bed next to a sprawled out Shibu. As both of them were pulling deep, salt-free breathes of air out of the vast room, Cici still thought only of her leadership responsibilities.

Cici's redoubtable people were commonly regarded has the most self-reliant in Bonta. They weren't snobbish, nor clannish, which was the word most people expected to apply upon meeting a Cra. But at the core of her people, there was a rugged self-reliance which was the first strength upon which they would draw in a time of trouble. The Cra would help themselves, until a native common sense told them that they needed more help than their own community could provide.

The Cra detachment which Cici commanded, had been chosen by the community elders to render assistance, and if necessary to defend Bonta Castle. Fifty Cra now lived within the precincts of the palace full-time, as an adjunct to the Palace guards, the Knights, the Squires, and of course his Majesty the King.

Cici was the sort who led from the front, never ever behind the desk, a white stone wall, or heavy oaken door. Her command of the detachment arose not only from her rank as Ranger-in-Chief of her people, but from among the detachment itself. They're very first act after volunteering was to elect a leader, and Cici had fallen into the role as naturally as knocking an arrow.

Being the only female in the detachment also meant that she had to contend with many of the volunteers who had never been out of the Woodland, and into the big city before. Leading the detachment also had an unspoken role as combination big brother and den mother.

So Cici was outwardly relieved that none of them had been hurt, and that the larger community of her people who was now seeking help.  
Cici took a moment, only her second of the day to check her own condition. Her uniform was still damp in places with seawater, and blotched with large white patches of salt from the sea spray.

Cici was no strict disciplinarian, as she was more inclined than most to use the rule book to start a good fire rather than using it to justify her command.

"It seems were all inside, at least for a while, until the storm abates." Cici said at last, allowing just a little bit of fatigue to creep into her voice.

As Cici finished finding her voice once more, a familiar winged figure slid quietly up to the edge of the bed, looking at both Cici and Shibu with uncommon urgency.

“We're all right, Feliice.” Cici re-assured her in a more steady whisper. “Just a bit saltier for our troubles.”

"Go take a hot shower, dear. We have plenty more hot water then will need, praise be. Use some of it to refresh yourself, and get out of those wet things before we have you down here as a patient, rather than a guest." Felice said sympathetically.

"I'll keep an eye on the detachment, Sis. And if any of them come in needing help, you'll be the first one I tell, Cra's promise." Shibu added earnestly.

"Thanks, both of you." Cici replied her voice picking up in an attempt to hide her fatigue. The redheaded Archer stood up, kissed Felice and Shibu each gently on the nose, in keeping with the family custom.

"The girls shower room is down the corridor, second arch on the right-hand side." Felice informed her warmly as Bonta's chief healer snuggled warmly into Cici, and held her close. "Go on now, and don't be afraid to use all the water you like." Felice reminded gently, even as Cici made quick tracks for the corridor Felice had indicated.

Once she had vanished from sight, Felice turned gentle eyes on Shibu.  
"And as for you, my handsome Sea Dragon, I'm so proud of you that I'm likely to float across every room in the castle for a week!" Felice told her son as she added another to the kiss Cici had left upon his nose.

"Can you see about Shareef, please mom?" Shibu asked.

"Don't worry, Shibu. There's nothing wrong with him that some good warm sleep won't cure." Felice reassured him gently. "Keeping him warm, and out of the cold water probably saved his life. Felice continued, sounding like the healer that she was.

"Okay, mom." Shibu said, his confidence restored. "When he wakes up, can you have someone come and tell me, please?" Shibu asked somewhat urgently.

"Certainly dear, count on it." Felice replied quickly.

"Just looking at his original clothes, it's easy to see that Shareef isn't from Bonta, or anywhere close to it." Shibu told his mother.

"When he wakes up, it's going to be in a strange place, and I think the first thing he'll need, other than good food and rest, will be a friend." Shibu went on.

"Trust the Sea Dragon to find the very best medicine for anyone." Felice said with a warm and loving pride in her voice. "Shibu, sometimes I think you know more about healing than I ever will." 

So saying, Felice reached down and kissed her son's forehead gently.  
But she grimaced when the tender moment was met with a taste of unexpected saltiness!

"Oh dear!" Felice told her son gently. "It seems that Cici isn't the only one who could benefit from a long hot soak, and perhaps a touch of the laundry." Felice told him simply. Can I trust Bonta's newest knight to wash out his own silks, or should I wait until change of shift, and help you out?" Felice wanted to know.

"Aw Mom! I can manage! You and I both know that these practically wash themselves." Shibu replied with gentle reassurance.

Felice knew that Shibu wasn't far from the truth. The ancient material from which the silks had been cut was one of the few remnants of the Eliotrope's technology that Shibu had discovered in the catacombs below the castle. The word Shibu commonly used to describe the material was a misnomer. It had the same qualities as the rare and expensive silk known to the Bontarians. But the truth about the material ran much deeper, as it was also charged with the same life energy which Shibu could channel and control. 

The unassuming red and silver outfit was in reality a set of life force armor which Shibu charged each and every time he wore it.

Felice had washed it for him time and again, and had watched the breathlessly light material shed every trace of dirt, soil, or sweat when exposed to nothing more than simple, clean water. Once they were dry again the outfit showed no trace of wear, and was as clean, crisp, and light as the namesake most Bontarians would use to describe it.

“The male showers are set up one archway past the inner doors, on your Right, Dearest mine. “Felice told her son quietly. “Go on and get cleaned up. I promise if there's any change, I'll let you know right away.”

“OK, Mom.” Shibu responded stealing a glance over his Mother's floating shoulder toward the bed where Shareef lay, now sound asleep.  
Shibu went up on his toes and did a quick pivot. It allowed a trained Ranger to turn in place so quickly that almost no one could perceive the smooth motion. The inside doorway that Cici had passed thru was still open, and Shibu exercised his Ranger skill by reflex once again, slipping thru the door and closing it silently behind him before he walked toward the first archway on the right, toward the steam cloud hanging over the archway, and the spattering sound of running water beyond the mist.

Shibu decided to wash his silks before himself, and as he stepped into one of the white tiled showers, he paused to glance around modestly before he lowered the hood which covered his hat, and stripped to the waist first, removing his red and silver trimmed jacket before reaching over and starting a brisk flow of warm water from the iron shower head set up nearer the top of the narrow but tall shower stall.

The merest touch of flowing water seemed to freshen and revitalize Shibu's unique jacket. The water flowing down along the drain trough showed no trace of any soil, but Shibu could feel the moment where his jacket first absorbed, and then began to shed the flow of clear water. The slight stiffness that Shibu had felt in the collar seemed to melt away as the life energy imbued into the material first accepted the flow of the water, and just a moment later to repel it. His slightly wet jacket became as soft as his Mother's kiss beneath his fingers.

Contented, Shibu hung his jacket on one of a trio of pegs inside the shower, but carefully outside the touch of the water spray. Shibu turned back again, into the shower spray, and with a quick, almost dancing step, unwound the red and silver wrap that protected him around his lower torso and legs. His belt, which divided his outfit dropped into one hand, as Shibu held the larger square of material up and toward the spray. It softened in his hand to the consistency of a weightless cloud before it began to repel water droplets once more.

Shibu folded the large square into the customary triangle before lofting it gently up and over another peg, adjoining his jacket. His belt with the twin silver rings for a buckle flowed onto the third open peg in just a moment, also clean, fresh and free of any trace of the salty sea.

His washing done, such as it was, Shibu now allowed himself to step beneath the comfortable flow of warm, soft water which seemed to sweep tension and worry away from his body and mind for a few delightful moments.  
The natural herbal soap was made from tallow and oils, free of any caustic compound that would burn the skin. Shibu's bronze skin had always been slightly oily, and seemed to shed dirt, sweat and in this case, salt, almost as easily as the unique clothing he wore. He allowed himself a few extra moments and a bit more water to clean his hair, knowing and almost feeling Cici combing it for him into a silky fall of black mane that fell to the middle of Shibu's broad, thick back.

The moment of being clean again brought a partial release of tensions which Shibu welcomed. As he stepped over, beyond the privacy wall of the shower to pick up a fluffy towel, Shibu felt better than he had in days. But as he dried and re-dressed completely by reflex, Shibu found both his mind and his heart filled with thoughts and images of Shareef.

Shibu found himself becoming anxious to return to Shareef and see to his welfare. An extra pulse of energy came to Shibu's mind and pinged thru his senses as the thought crossed his mind.  
The sensation of a mental link was one he had shared, up until this moment, only with Master Chang. The extra sensation brought Shibu the sure, certain knowledge that Shareef still lay in the triage bed where he had been placed before the two of them had been separated.

The spell was broken a moment later when Shibu heard a familiar voice from just beyond the base of the tall archway that formed the shower room.

“Shibu, you want me to brush your hair, Little Brother?”

The sound of the question sent a smile to Shibu's face and a wonderfully warm ripple down his spine. Cici used both a soft brush and a softer touch, as she took an almost glowing pride in combing his hair as if she was dedicated to allowing Shibu to discover that he was in fact quite handsome, in spite of Shibu's modest protestation to the contrary.

“Sure, Sis, anytime!” Shibu answered brightly. “But I want to be sure Shareef is OK, First. Would that be all right?”

“Fine, My Handsome Sea Dragon, anytime you're ready.” Came Cici's call from outside.

Shibu made certain the water was completely off, and pitched his used towel quickly into an over sized wicker basket in a dry corner of the room, at the far end of some wooden benches.

As Shibu stepped beyond the foundations of the archway, Brother and sister were reunited with a gentle hug.

“Feel better?” Cici wanted to know.

“Yep-Yep!' Shibu piped up brightly before the pair of Rangers got up on their toes and sprinted back toward the Hospital at their best and quietest, Ranger Run.

Bonta's main hospital had been moved from a broad park-like area at the foot of Castle Hill into huge rooms just off of the throne room and the Royal audience chamber so familiar to Shibu. The world seemed to change abruptly, from one of Royal Pomp and Circumstances, to a clean world, dressed in white as pure as the color of the castle stones themselves.

Shibu and Cici came to a smooth stop beneath a pair of matched archways which was the rear entrance to the hospital. Standing beside her brother, Cici heard Shibu's breath catch at the vision of the vast space which opened before both of them.  
Shibu had never seen the Hospital from this side before, and the cavernous size of it, as well as the perfection of its arrangement stopped him where he stood at Cici side as the two of them passed through the great stone archway which was the only major entrance to a single room big enough to hold a stadium for Boufball!

Neat ranks and files of beds by the hundreds seemed to carpet the vast cavernous room. But the space was saved from feeling claustrophobic by the great vaulted ceiling which formed the innermost layer of the roof of the keep itself.

The combination hospital and dormitory was neatly sectioned off by vast flows of curtains. These moved on rods which in turn were on wheels, and could be moved by sections to quickly establish individual rooms, or where needed, hospital spaces for the sick or injured.

It was here that the vast spaces took on new life, mostly filled with the never-ending flutter of wings. For this was the space that had been given over to the entire population of Enripsa healers within the city and Kingdom of Bonta.

The sight of it all conspired to steal Shibu's breath away, as he had never seen so many hundreds of a single people concentrated in all the history of Bonta.

As the two Rangers passed under the great archway and into the great, cavernous hospital, they were instantly recognized by tens of both healers, and volunteer attendants, whose job it was to move patients, food, medicine, and people efficiently in and out over the space which suddenly seemed as big as the entire castle!

"Hello Cici!" Came a voice from above, whose owner quickly appeared in front of them as they entered the hospital space. She was a petite Enripsa, no larger in stature, nor older in age than Shibu himself.

"Hello Felicity!" Cici shot back as quickly as one of her arrows. "We have a new customer for the staff, and we'd like to see Felice, if she isn't being driven insane by all this work."

Felicity's face was gentle and cherubic. Her arm band set out her rank as a nurse within the hospital.

"All right, whom exactly did you bring in?" the young Nurse asked

"His name is Shareef." Shibu said helpfully. "He's a rescue from a ship run aground just off of Dragon Tooth Shoal."

"That's all we need to know, for now," Felicity said with an efficient tone in her voice, her eyes still sparkling at the sight of Shibu. "Any friend of yours is a friend of mine, handsome." Felicity added, her words slightly breathless and dreamy. "I'll go jot this information down in the Admissions log book." Felicity told Cici and Shibu as the Enripsa fought to tear herself away and return to duty.

Only then did Cici see Shibu share his usual bright and energetic smile.

"At least he's safe now, even if no one else--" Shibu paused, unable to finish the thought that Shareef might be the only survivor from the stricken ship.

"Well for now, let's see what else we can do to make him more comfortable. Shibu, draw the drapes for a moment, I hate to spoil your wrapping job, but I think he would be more comfortable under clean sheets then wrapped in a woolly blanket."

Shibu nodded, and the curtains, which hung from small metal rings which slid along the rod sections around the bed quickly closed off the bed from general view.

Cici stepped back from the bed, but not from any trace of modesty. "It's your wrapping job, so I'll let you undo it."

Shibu reached gently beneath the covers, and Cici watched in absolute fascination while Shibu untucked the corners of the woolen blanket from the wrap around Shareef's knees. The blanket seemed to unfold from around him as if by magic, and with the gentlest touch imaginable, Shibu rolled Shareef gently from side to side, to slide the width of the blanket out from underneath him once it was entirely unwrapped.

It was another astounding demonstration of Shibu's ability to take the simplest of things and do them in a way completely unique to himself.

"You're going to have to teach that one to the Rangers, Shibu. I don't think they'll believe it if I just tell them about it." Cici told Shibu now completely unable to hide her amazement at Shibu's skill in turning the complex into the fluid and the simple.

"Where did you learn that, anyway?" Cici asked.

Shibu had to actually stop what he was doing while he folded the blanket and think about it for a moment. "I'm not sure.” he said at last, I just did what came to me naturally, and this is what happened." Shibu explained casually.

After he was done speaking, Shibu finished folding the green woolen blanket back into the same square shape that it was when Cici had handed it to him in the longboat.

Cici took it for a moment, and held it up, looking for crease marks, or any sort of lines left in the blanket itself. Her greatest surprise of the day came when she found none, and could tell no difference at all between the blanket that she held in her hands, and the one on the bed directly across from Shareef!

The white haired refugee seem to approve his new surroundings, by stretching more fully than either of them had ever seen, emitting a soft and gentle cooing sound, and snuggling down even more deeply under the soft covers. In just a moment, Shareef was as absolutely sound asleep as he could be, tucked into the clean, warm bed.  
"Well, I guess that means he likes it here." Shibu whispered more gently, not wishing to disturb him in any way.

"Well I hope he does, that's one of our intensive care beds. The best we have." A familiar voice said from behind Shibu.


	7. Home from the Sea

The dark-haired boy in the red and silver silks pivoted rapidly on his heels, and fell into a deep hug, taking the owner of the voice into his arms and squeezing her lovingly.

"Mom!" Was all Shibu could manage to say or needed to say, as Felice hugged her son joyfully and lovingly, finally sure he was safe from the teeth of the storm now brewing like a curse outside of the castle walls.

"Well it seems you've been busy, Sir Shibu." Felice told her son as she set him down lightly on his feet once again.

"Busy?" Cici interjected. "Our Sea Dragon here rescued your newest patient practically single-handed." Cici told Felice, not bothering in the least to hide her own pride in her little brother's accomplishments in front of his mother.

"When he gets a spare minute, I think the King will just ask Shibu to go outside, stuff that storm into a bottle, and just throw it away." Cici added ruefully.

Felice giggled, her rosy cheeks adding to her own obvious relief and happiness. "Oh no no!" Felice interjected. "I'm not letting you two leave here again, unless it's under a Royal escort." Felice jested in return.

The joke brought a quiet laugh from Shibu, who knew full well that his mother was capable of arranging such an escort, from the best source in all Bonta.

After a moment, Felice held up a quiet finger to her lips, and the trio moved gently and quietly away from Shareef's bed, leaving the castaway to sleep his way to the beginning of his recovery.

The three of them wound their way out of what seemed to be acres of beds, and took a gentle seat on one of dozens of long wooden benches set up outside of the hospital area.

Felice nodded to the other two, to let them know they were safe to speak normally again.

"So how bad has it been, mom?" Shibu asked, not bothering to hide a trace of urgency in his voice.

"Not as bad as it might be, thank goodness!" Felice replied her voice sounding slightly heavy. "But bad enough. It would've been a lot worse if we had been unprepared." Felice admitted.

"Thanks be to Shibu and Master Chung, for feeling what was coming, and making us listen to them." Cici observed. "Has anyone in the Cra detachment been injured, or wounded?" Cici wanted to know. "I think the high winds will mean a lot of broken glass in and around the city, I'm afraid." Cici continued.

"No Cra injuries so far, Cici. The entire detachment has been working as stretcher bearers, as people started to come in from the outlying districts around the castle." Felice told her quietly. "Those are open farm areas, where people have a lot less protection from the storm wind and falling trees."

Cici nodded tightly. It was news that she expected, but it was still difficult for her to hear. 

“Go on, Both of you.” Felice told Shibu and Cici. “Things are all right here for now, and both of you have better things to do than to worry about the safest place in Bonta.” 

“Your Mother is right, Shibu.” Cici replied resolutely. “If we're to help to see to Bonta, there comes a point where we have to take care of ourselves too.”

Shibu nodded slowly, after another glance toward the hospital's newest arrival.

“He'll be fine, Sweetness, Enripsa's Promise.” Felice told her son in a quiet, serious voice that Shibu knew that she only used when something profound was behind her words.

“All right, Mom!” Shibu said more brightly at last. This storm is far from over, and others are likely to need the same sort of help that we gave to Shareef.”

“That's my Sea Dragon!” Felice answered gently, hugging Shibu close. 

“Unless something changes, let's all meet up for dinner tonight.” Cici suggested.

“I'll see to it that we get a bit more of a ration for Bonta's best rescuer!” The Cra Ranger added with a touch of a proud smile that warmed Shibu's heart, and put a bright glimmer into his pure blue eyes. 

Shibu turned away from both of them, and bounded toward the door en route to his Tower apartment.

A unique feeling of pride flowed through Felice as she watched Shibu stand, and take up the fast walk that within a few steps would become a Ranger Run on his way back to the seaside tower.

But no sooner was Shibu out of her sight, when Felice heard a groan of discomfort arise from one of the nearby beds. As it was shift change for the hospital staff within the great room, Felice floated over to Shareef's bed to see what was the matter.

In a moment she was hovering gently above his bed observing her patient with a healer's eyes and sensibilities.

Shareef himself seem to be slightly older than Shibu, and his fine light olive skin was set off by his wild shock of white hair. In a moment, Shareef was turning from one side to another on the bed, as if some unseen form of distress at touched him with cold fingers.

Felice reached out, and gently put a pair of fingers to the center of his olive skinned forehead. The transient of healing energy seem to work, and Shareef was once again still beneath the covers, his breathing light and untroubled.

Yet, Felice looked up from the bed, along the path that Shibu had taken to exit the hospital. Then she looked slowly back at Shareef for a long while, keeping the white haired lad fixed in her eyes.

She could sense very little wrong with him physically. A few bruises, a small scrape on one of his knees, and that was all. Felice could heal the sum of these with just a few touches of her least arcane healing brush.  
But as a veteran healer, Felice knew better than most that there were places where survivors could be wounded beyond the flesh, and deeper than the bones.

As she looked at him without the wrap that Shibu had provided, Felice noticed the unusual white linen head piece that Shareef wore. It covered the top of his head, coming down around the sides of his face to cover his ears, but stopped short of enwrapping his lower jaw. The material of the headdress was as white as his hair, so it was easy for Felice to notice a tiny red spot on what would be Shareef's forehead, beneath the folds of the white material and the black bands which held it in place.

His head had been the only place Felice had not looked at when Shibu brought him into the hospital. But the small blood spot was a bright, vivid red, telling the healers experienced eyes that the wound which produced the blood was fresh.

Felice felt a slight change in the energy surrounding Shareef's head and face, so the wound was probably a small abrasion of one form or another. Still, it was bleeding, and that separated it from all the other wounds she could see and feel on his body.

Once Shareef was deeply asleep again and still, Felice made a medical decision. With all of her humors gentleness, she reached down as she hovered over his bed, and gently peeled back the folds of the white linen headdress. It took a moment with the resistance of the dark pair of elastic bands, but in a moment, she had peeled the white linen back and away, off of the top of his head.

What Felice saw was more than any abrasion. Yet it was a site so familiar to her, it took her breath away. As quickly and gently as she could, she treated the small rough area on the corner of Shareef's forehead, stopping the flow of fresh blood from a small raw spot which was the only thing that spoiled the smooth perfection of his olive skin. 

Then, quickly she delicately took hold of the linen headdress, and did her best to set it back as it had been before across Shareef's brow. Felice looked about, and was relieved to see no one else in this section of the hospital with her. In a moment, she fluttered straight up from the bed where Shareef lay, and slipped across the hospital, moving fast toward the section where Felicity was working on patient records.

"Felicity?" She called calmly.

In a moment, the younger Enripsa nurse peaked around the corner of one of the sections of closed curtains with a smile. "Hello Felice, how are you?" Felicity asked brightly.

"Suddenly busier than I ought to be." Felice replied, speaking somewhat quickly.

Can you watch my section until the end of shift change?" Felice asked with quiet urgency.

"Sure, no worries at all." Felicity replied easily. But then, the younger nurse knit her brow as she looked at Felice.

"Anything the matter?" Felicity asked curiously.

"I need to go and see Shibu for a few moments." Felice answered easily.

Felicity smiled easily. "Go on, Felice. There's no better healing medicine for a son then his mother."

Felice smiled outwardly. In her mind, she understood that she now owed the junior nurse a favor, and a form of undying gratitude.

"I'll be back in fifteen minutes or so, I just want to make sure he's absolutely all right after all he's been through today."

"Well don't just stand there fluttering!" Felicity answered. "Go and make sure, and take all the time you need."

"Thank you Felicity. You'll never know how much."

"Well, just put in a good word for me with Shibu, and we'll call it even, okay?" Felicity said with a girlish giggle that brought a smile from Felice, as she turned and fluttered easily away after Shibu. 

Felice waited until she was well clear of the main arch of the hospital in the keep before she began to pick up speed. If Felicity or anyone else had seen her in a hurry, at the worst, panic may have ensued.

But for now that didn't matter. Felice was after Shibu. And her senses told her exactly where he was and how far ahead. As Felice thought, Shibu was doing the Ranger run, which meant he could out run anything in the kingdom, on two legs, four legs, or two wings. So the first thing Felice did was to slow down, and rather than try to overtake her boy she just set a fast pace that would bring the two of them together as soon as possible. After a minute, Shibu had stopped, sure enough, at the top of the seaside tower. Felice was still a quarter of the castle away, but she was closing fast. As she closed in on the main inside doors of the great tower, she could risk calling his name without sounding excited, or worse, panicked.

"Shibu!"

The sound of his own name, matched by the flutter of wings was all that Shibu needed to stop himself within one long stride. At the call of his own name, and almost before he could turn around and head out to the main room again, Felice was floating in the same space, face-to-face with her son.

"Sorry to violate your territory, my boy." Felice began, still trying to catch her breath.

"Aw, mom, you know this is as much your home as it is mine, anytime you want to be here, for any reason."

"Well I'm glad you feel that way, dearest because your home may be growing in ways you never thought about." Felice said cryptically, with just enough urgency in her voice to rouse Shibu's curiosity.

"What's the matter mom?" Shibu asked, now sharing his mother's note of urgency. "What's happening?"

Felice was stopped for a moment. She had moved so quickly that she never exactly figured out how to tell Shibu what she had found.

"Would you do me a favor?" Felice asked.

"You already know I will. Say so, and I'll move the entire Kingdom of Bonta three feet to the left, just for you." Shibu said without any trace of sarcasm.

The thought of it made Felice snicker. The humor broke the tension, and created a pause for her to think more deeply about what she was going to tell Shibu and how.

"Well, his Majesty might have something to say about that. Personally, I think the view would be a little better." Felice replied lightly with a cherubic smile.

Shibu giggled, as much of a release for him as it was for her after a day filled with tension and fear.

"Dearest, I need you to come back to the hospital." Felice told him gently using her best healer's voice.

"Okay mom." Shibu replied simply. "Is there anything the matter?"

"With you, my dearest darling, not a bit. You are as sterling as silver. But there is something I think you need to see. As the representative of your people, that is."

Shibu wrinkled his nose. He was the representative of his people, or so said another of the titles with which the King had honored him. But as he was the only Eliotrope in Bonta, it had always seemed just a bit superfluous.

"All right mom, let's go." Shibu said with his typical direct simplicity. Inwardly, for just a moment, he did wonder if perhaps, the day had taken too much out of his mother.

The two of them walked back, being certain to use the hidden tunnels and passageways within the castle. This was in part for speed, but it was also because if the populace caught sight of Shibu going into the hospital, rumors about his health could begin. And rumors were never good for anybody.

Shibu enjoyed a leisurely walk through the torch lit passages with his mother at his side. In the past week, once evidence of the storm had become unmistakable, the two had not seen much of one another. But as they walked along the hidden passages, not a word passed between them.

Shibu found this worrisome, as his mother was usually chatty and loquacious. More importantly, she wasn't gushing over what Shibu had done during the day.

Felice was Enripsa. They were healers, and tied into Bonta's network of underground news and gossip like no other race in the World of the Twelve.

By now, half of Bonta knew about the daring rescue that Shibu and Cici had accomplished on the Dragon Tooth Shoal. And that half of Bonta was already embellishing it for the other half, so that wild tales and songs could echo through the taverns of Bonta. But with the white city sealed tight against the approaching storm, there was no other outlet for news, gossip, songs, or much of anything else. So the population of the city sealed within the castle against the storm had turned up the rumor mill until it seemed to be running on its own steam engine.

Shibu had already heard some of the whispers, from the people he had walked past casually as they moved from one place to another inside the castle keep.

Shibu found the rumors of Sea Dragons to be so funny that it almost doubled him over laughing. But for the moment, there was nothing he could do, and certainly nothing he could say to say anything that would calm people's wild imaginations.

There was still a mighty storm spending itself with near insane fury beyond the white walls of Bonta Castle. And for now, the most important thing was making frightened people feel safe and secure. That meant that anything which might incite fear or panic was as poisonous as nightshade to the people inside the castle.

So everyone, from the royal court, through the healers, and down to the volunteer corps had been lectured on maintaining calm and steady behavior during these extraordinary times.

And for a few moments, Felice enjoyed the unique place within the kingdom, for she alone suspected how extraordinary the times were about to become.

Shibu was so pleased and relaxed to be with his mother that his mind never thought of anything desperate, or critical.

That is, until he passed beneath the great archway which was the main entrance to the hospital. His first thought was of his friend. Yet, as Shibu looked hopefully over to the bed where his friend laid, and then slowly back at his mother, whose cheeks had taken on a noticeable blush, did he begin to feel something unusual about his friend.

His first impulse was to make a running dash to his friend's bedside. But Felice took him firmly by the hand, and around the wrist which brought him up short.

"No, Shibu!" Wait just a second, dearest."

"It's Shareef isn't it?" Shibu said, automatically keeping his voice down. "Something's happened to him, isn't that right?" Shibu added, sounding just a bit more desperate than a moment ago.

"Shibu, my dearest boy. There are some things that are best explained with words, and some things that are best seen with one's own eyes. Come with me, quickly and quietly, now." Felice replied, her tone sounding as if she was prepared to break the most momentous news possible to her son.

All Shibu could do was nod gently, and walk along with Felice as she came down to the floor and walked alongside her boy, holding his hand all the while.

When they got to Shareef's bed, nothing at all seemed out of place. Shareef was still sprawled out under the warm covers, peacefully asleep, without a worry, in this kingdom or any other.

"Shibu, dear. Would you draw the drapes please?" Felice asked gently but firmly.

Shibu knew that tone, and he complied quickly and without questions for the moment. The two sections of draperies closed easily, sliding on the hooks to create a soft barrier which closed off the bedside, and the patient from the view of others.

Once they were alone with Shareef, Shibu looked expectantly at his mother for direction.

Felice spoke not a word, but instead, she took wing again, floating easily over Shareef's bed, so that not even the downdraft from her wings could disturb him.

Then, without ceremony or hesitation, Felice reached down, and gently peeled back Shareef's white linen head covering, exposing his forehead, and the sides of his head to Shibu's eyes.

Shibu's face fell, along with his jaw, as he stood at Shareef's bedside, and looked with wordless amazement at the pair of small, blue, points which grew from the sides of Shareef's head.

Before Shibu could remember how to speak, or find any words that mattered, it was Felice who spoke, using the tone of the healer.

"Shibu, darling. Is there any doubt in your mind?" Felice asked with an intentional deadpan calm in her voice.

Shibu could make no reply.

Felice took him by the shoulder with one hand, and shook her son gently to break the spell of the vision before his eyes.

Shibu's reaction was to slide his free hand up to his shoulder, and place it warmly over his mother's hand.

"Shibu, darling. Is there any doubt in your mind?" Felice asked once again, with a detached calm in her voice.

This time, Shibu shook his head. There was no more doubt in his mind about what he could see in the hospital bed than what he saw when he looked at his own reflection.

"No, mother. Not a bit. Shareef is an Eliotrope!" Shibu said in the sort of silent whisper that only Felice could hear.

Then, all of a sudden, the great arched ceiling room seemed to close in around Shibu, and he felt his knees weaken, and himself falling to the floor.


	8. Noble Patient

Shibu's mind was swirling like the dark storm spending itself outside of the castle with unequaled fury. But as his eyes fluttered open, his eyes quickly focused on a quartet of worried faces.

The first and most concerned of these was an elderly figure, with long white hair, but eyes as clear and clean as blue crystal. He wore a light robe about his shoulders, and a small, unassuming Golden tiara crown atop his head.

"Are you quite alright my boy?" The king asked with real and sincere urgency in his voice. "You gave us all quite a turn."

"Your Maj--!" Shibu began to say, as he tried to sit himself up in bed. But midway through the movement his strength failed him, and it was the gentle hand of the King himself who pushed Shibu down again, gently but insistently into the soft, warm bed.

"Forget all about that stuff for now, lad. No protocol in the hospital, except to look at all the pretty nurses." The King added, giving Shibu a sly wink and friendly smile as he said so.

"You've had quite a day, my young Sea Dragon." Said Felice's voice in a warm and reassuring tone which wrapped Shibu like another blanket.

"So our super Sea Dragon has his limits after all." Cici joked gently as Shibu sank back down into the bed, and into a world of warmth.

"But mom!" Shibu protested in a barely audible whisper. "I need to get up. People need--" Shibu never finished, as his voice slid into a deep sleep, along with his body.

The King and the trio of faces with him slowly stood up from the half circle they had formed around the bedside.

"My stars!" The King interjected. "After all he's been through today, he wants to get up and give more. If there was a higher rank than Knighthood within the Kingdom of Bonta, I would grant it to him, this very minute." The King told the trio of Felice, Cici, and Felicity, the younger Enripsa nurse whose job it was to see to patients in intensive care.

The King turned to her specifically, taking Felicity gently by the hands, so the two of them could also connect at the eyes. "Felicity, I leave Bonta's best hope in your care, and the care of his mother. Anything you require at all is to be given to him, without limits. Is that understood?" The King asked with the same urgency that a grandfather might use when worried about a favorite grandchild.

"I absolutely promise your Majesty that he will get the best care that Bonta can provide." Felicity replied. "I find it as difficult as your Majesty does to imagine anything that would render Shibu anything less than glowing and healthy, which is the way we all know him."

Felicity's heartfelt reassurance was good enough for the King. The elderly man with a tiara crown nodded gently, and offered Felicity thanks and encouragement by kissing her gently upon both hands before releasing them.

"Felice?" The King asked, returning to the next familiar but worried face within the small group. "You are the best healer in all my kingdom. You are also the boy's mother. I grant you Royal Authority over his treatment and care. Anything he needs, he shall have. And I promise you that on the entire Kingdom of Bonta."

Felice didn't answer with words. She simply reached over to King Louis, and swept him into a long, warm, and loving hug, punctuated by a familiar kiss upon the Royal nose!

King Louis IV of Bonta returned her embrace, picking Felice up from the floor gently, and holding her in his arms for a long and reassuring moment before setting her down as lightly as a hand-painted China doll.

Then the King of Bonta turned to Cici with a crackle of blue fire in his regal eyes.

"Ranger Cici." The King said with resolution. "We create you commander of the personal royal guards detachment, along with your duties as commander of the Cra detachment of Bonta. We charge you with the job which we know is most near to your heart. Your personal duty will be to oversee the welfare and needs of your brother until such time as he is pronounced completely well and fit to return to duty. We shall forgo the Traditional Trials, as Shibu has proved himself once again this day. We have also decided to postpone his investiture until he has regained his health." The King told Cici in a serious tone of voice.

"As your Majesty desires." Came Cici's taciturn reply to both the office and royal authority which she had been granted in turn. "And I thank your Majesty with all my heart for a very personal trust." Cici added with genuine gratitude in her voice, along with the tears welling in her green eyes.


	9. From Blue Sea to White City

The decision to leave both Shibu and Shareef alone to sleep didn't require all the nursing skills in Bonta at the moment.

Shareef was suffering from a mild case of exposure due to his time on the cold, wind swept rocks in the face of the storm. That was a diagnosis that even Felicity could make without Felice's help.

While Felicity looked after Shareef, Felice turned to her son.  
No one in Bonta knew better or knew more about Shibu's natural tendency to push himself to the limit, especially when someone was in danger. In the typical fashion of the Guardian, Shibu had pressed his limits, and exceeded them handsomely in rescuing Shareef.

Like any of Bonta's many loyal guardians who had also worked overtime to prepare and to spare the city and sheltered population from the wrath of the storm, Shibu needed rest, and Felice was committed to seeing to it that Shibu got that needed rest in spite of himself. The curtained sections surrounding his bed were quickly drawn and buttoned up tight. The same was done in turn was Shareef's bed. The young seafaring stranger still rested in the same bed into which Shareef had been tucked when he arrived. In spite of the Royal worry, both Felice and the medical staff understood that time and sleep, the two most common medicines that could not be had in a pharmacy, were the best for the two of them.

Felicity debated waking one or both of them for lunch, but as she took vital signs from both of them, and dutifully recorded them on charts at their bedsides, the young Enripsa healer could not find it in her heart to disturb them, even if it was to dispense another important and freely available medication to both of her unusual patients. So for the moment, the light meals were taken off of lunch and dinner schedules until Shibu and Shareef were well enough to eat again.

By the time that Shibu's empty stomach and demanding physiology woke him up, there was a new, slightly brighter daylight within the hospital, and the previous nights candles and torches had all been extinguished. Scarcely had Shibu opened his eyes or heard his stomach growl like a caged animal before Felicity fluttered over to his bedside. She sailed over the top of the curtains which were supposed to give him privacy.

"Good morning Sir Shibu!" Felicity said with a sympathetic and bright tone which in the opinion of many of the sleeping citizens in the hospital was too bright and energetic for so early in the morning.  
After a few grumbled protests, Felicity lowered both her voice and her enthusiasm to a more professional level as she looked almost anxiously at Shibu. Felicity seemed to hang in anticipation on every and any word which Shibu was about to speak. 

"Good morning, Felicity!" Shibu said in a practiced Rangers whisper. "How are you this--"  
Shibu paused, allowing his sharp mind to try to synchronize the last times and events he could remember.

"Have I been asleep since yesterday?" Shibu asked in a suppressed whisper which drew Felicity ever closer to his bedside.

"You certainly have, and has anyone ever told you you're absolutely darling when you're asleep?" Felicity asked coyly.

The question made Shibu wrinkle his nose slightly.  
"Once." Shibu answered with precision. "My mom, back when I was 5 years old." Shibu added ruefully.

Felicity took on a slightly crestfallen air.

"Sorry, I was just trying to make conversation." Felicity added as she stepped over quickly to take a look at Shareef.

"How is he?" Shibu asked in a quiet but urgent whisper.

"His body temperature is back to normal." Felicity replied clinically. "Thanks mostly to you, he was only slightly wounded. My guess is that for now, all he is dealing with is simple exhaustion."

"May I try getting him to eat if he wakes up?" Shibu asked gently.

Felicity considered the question for a moment. "It would probably be good for him to eat as much as he can. I can only imagine how much energy he went through during the shipwreck. I can't imagine anything more frightening!" Felicity replied.

"All right, Felicity." Shibu replied earnestly. "If he wakes up, and there's any change, I'll let you know."

Shibu's eagerness made Felicity smile. "That a boy!" Felicity replied brightly." We may make an Enripsa out of you yet!"

With a wink and a smile, Felicity turned back toward the nursing station. There was so much paperwork to do that she could scarcely think of anything else.

Lying in bed, before he moved too quickly, or even moved at all, Shibu allowed his body a moment to make sure that everything was all right.  
He was in no pain, felt warm and rested, and had no wounds that he could see or feel. So he was fairly certain he'd be safe enough trying to get out of bed.

In a moment, he had peeled back the clean sheets and fluffy blanket and begun the swinging motion which usually carried him out of bed. 

But the sight of his own bare feet brought him up short. As did the change in the air around him that let him know that he wasn't wearing anything at all!

Only the curtains buttoned closed around his bed had saved Shibu's modesty. The thought made Shibu smile, because he knew his modesty was about as worthy of rescue as Shareef's shattered ship.

Shibu looked around quickly, and caught sight of the small stand next to his bed, which held a bowl, a pitcher of water, and the candle that was his source of light after dark. The stand also had a small drawer in it. Shibu slid it open quickly, and was delighted to find his familiar red and silver silks, neatly folded beneath his belt in the drawer. Slipping back into his familiar silks was almost as easy as thinking the thought of dressing. Shibu had kept his familiar hat throughout the ordeal, and he was happy to sense that his most comfortable piece of clothing had sustained no damage from the howling wind, or pelting rain. They were as soft, warm, and comfy as ever.

But as Shibu moved to get out of bed again, he realized that he was still missing his familiar footwear.

He took a second look in the drawer, and at the floor around the curtained off area of the bed, but saw no sign of his shoes.  
It was a small enough matter. For now, Shibu was more concerned with Shareef than with a dozen pairs of shoes.

Shibu slipped easily out of bed as simply as a puff of breeze might blow across his silks. Unbuttoning the curtains and stepping through them left his own private space behind and he was faced with another set of long curtains as crisp, clean, and white as those he had just passed through. 

But Shibu was quick to notice the curtains in front of his nose hadn't been buttoned at all, only drawn tightly closed around the bed next to his own. Stepping through them, he seemed to move with the flowing ease of the gently moving air he could feel within the keep's high vaulted ceiling.

He was also quick to be certain that the curtains were re-closed quickly and quietly, leaving Shibu completely alone inside the comfy space much like his own. Shareef seems smaller now somehow, wrapped as he was in clean bedding and soft blanket.

He could tell with the quickest glance that Bonta's second Eliotrope was on the very edge of a light sleep. Shibu stepped closer to Shareef's bedside. 

He had been close to Shareef on the shoals, at the very height of the storm. But as Shareef lay relaxed and peaceful, Shibu had a chance to take his first really good look at Shareef. The other Eliotrope's most obvious feature was his full thick head of pure white hair. It was as white as some of the ice and snow that the caravans had brought into Bonta from the tops of the high mountains one continent away. With Bonta's mild climate, many of her citizens had never seen snow outside of engravings in books. But Shibu had seen it firsthand, when he had spent several frigid winter nights atop a mountain, where Cici had taught him how to make a winter camp as part of his skills as a Ranger. 

Shareef's hair beneath his unusual headdress seemed to grow as wild and free as Shibu's own ink black mane. 

Someone looking for Shareef in the crowd might spot his unusual headgear before anything else, but the pure white hair underneath it was as much a marker for him as was a campfire on a distant hill.  
Shibu couldn't make out the color of Shareef's eyes right away, he thought he had noticed a smoldering green light like two opal's that seemed to light up Shareef's slightly broader face.

As Shibu stood by quietly, studying Shareef, his subject moved gently, and in repositioning himself slightly in a soft ocean of warm covers, one of Shareef's arms came out from under the covers, and settled gently on the fluffy green blanket that was keeping him warm and comfortable.

Shibu padded over a few steps, to stand nearer to the head of Shareef's bed. The movement allowed Shibu to bring up one of his arms and hold it right next to Shareef's arm.

Shareef's lighter olive skin was a deeper tone than the skin of most average Bontarians. It also presented a pleasant and cooler contrast to the deeper warmth of Shibu's own bronze skin tone. Shibu took a moment to consider the two colorations side-by-side, this time with an artist's eyes, rather than those of a Ranger. Seen as they could be next to each other, the varied skin tones seem to complement each other very well.

"They make a fine combination, don't they, Sadeek?"

The question came from the still, whispered voice whose owner moved gently beneath a warm blanket.

Shibu was gently surprised as Shareef reached out, and took hold of Shibu's hand by curling their fingers together gently but firmly.  
Shareef's fingers and palm were noticeably rougher, and the olive skin somewhat thicker in spots than its warm and silky sensation which Shibu enjoyed at the slight touch of their arms. Shibu ran the tip of his thumb gently over the back of Shareef's hand, while Shareef did the same across the bronze knuckles of his rescuer.

"They do indeed, my brother." Shibu replied, his voice full of gentle magic and wonder. "I am Shibu. This is a hospital, in the city of Bonta. You are safe and well, and you are welcome to stay as long as you wish. No one will harm you, and you are not a prisoner, but a guest." Shibu told him quietly with a reassuring and protective tone in his voice.

"Shukran, Shibu." Shareef replied simply, needing to say so much more but still struggling to find the strength. "You have saved my life, and I thank you beyond words. But where is my Captain, and the crew of my ship?"

"Gently brother, gently." Shibu replied. "Survivors from the storm were scattered all over the coast of Bonta. Rescuing all of them will take time. For now, let me see to you, first of all."

This time, Shareef's head moved for the first time, rolling over gently and looking up a bit as his eyes opened.

Shibu could not hold back the gasp that came to his voice and breath when he saw the clear color and light of Shareef's clear eyes!

"Is there something wrong, Shibu Sadeek?" Sharif asked. "Has some injury left me wounded about the face?" Shareef wanted to know.

"Oh no, no not at all." Shibu replied quickly and directly, so Shareef would be able to tell that he was being honest. "Your eyes are quite handsome. I've seen their like only in jewel boxes before now." Shibu told his olive skinned patient.

"On the rocks out there, the sea spray bit at my eyes like the fine teeth of a young sand kitten. I could not open them all the way before now. And the full vision of my rescuer is a fair one indeed." Shareef answered. As he spoke, his rougher fingers wrapped themselves gently around Shibu's fingers, and squeeze them with the rough but gentle touch.

"Shibu Sadeek?"

"Yes, Brother?"

"May I have something to drink?"

"Name any drink you like. If it is in Bonta, I will get it for you. If it is not here, tell me how, and I shall make it for you."

"Shukran, Sadeek, but let us begin with water, if you will."

"The pitcher on the small table, Brother." Shibu replied.

Shareef tried to roll over, at the same time making a game try at reaching for the pitcher. But as he tried to lift it from the small bedside table, Shareef's arm trembled, and he set the pitcher down again quickly, before it could fall off of the table.

Shibu watched for just a moment, and then he understood. He let go of Shareef's hand. With his fingers free, Shibu cast a pair of portals which allowed him to appear on the other side of the bed, next to the table. It came so quickly and naturally to him that he did not think about it. But a moment later, it was Shibu who had a hold of the pitcher, and was looking around in vain for some sort of glass from which Shareef could drink.

Shibu's solution was both simple and direct. He cupped one hand, and poured into it a small amount of water, and held it out to Shareef.

"I hope you don't mind brother, but we have no cups." Shibu explained gently. Shareef's answer was as open and gentle as Shibu was himself. Shareef lowered his head just a bit, although his eyes never left Shibu, and Shareef lapped up the cool water from Shibu's cupped hand.  
When he was finished, Shareef laid his head back down on the fluffy pillow. It helped Shibu to see the near angelic expression of relief and satisfaction in Shareef's gem-like green eyes.

"Cool water is as good as cool breezes." Shareef whispered gently as he laid his head back down and made himself comfortable once more beneath the warm sheets, and fluffy blanket.

"I will sleep more now, Sadeek." Shareef whispered, still holding gently onto Shibu's hand. "When I wake again, we shall talk and eat together, and I shall be your host this time." Shareef whispered softly as he slid back toward a contented sleep.

As Shibu felt Shareef's fingers relax gently, Shibu kept ahold of Shareef's hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze before tucking Shareef's hand and arm back underneath the warm covers.

"Good night brother, and good morning. For when you wake again, a new day will truly begin." Shibu told him in a gentle and loving whisper.

He rose gently and quietly as a puff of air from Shareef's bedside, and found he had to make an effort to return to the side of his own bed, not a yard away. For as Shibu set down again upon his own comfortable bed, he could feel himself weak in the knees, and his own senses gently unsteady, along with his racing heartbeat as he thought about Shareef.

For the first time in his life, Shibu felt weak and indecisive for just a moment. His emotions muddled together with his usually sharp thinking mind, and the result was a sensation Shibu had never felt, and did not care for in the least!  
He found himself pushing the tangled mass of his feelings down and away from himself, so his higher mind could assert itself and claim supremacy.

His first thought was for Shareef. Shibu had an uncommon ability to put himself in someone else's mind. The changes coming for Shareef were destined to change not only his view of himself, but his entire world. It had to be done with a slow, easy logic and a gentle touch, rather than allowing all of it to become a club which would virtually bash out Shareef's brains.

Shibu had never expected to deal with this problem. Yet, he had lived it himself. Master Chung's revelations as to Shibu's own true identity had come slowly, one step at a time. They began with the undeniable reality of the vast cavern excavated deep below the city of Bonta. But Shibu had several advantages by that time, including a loving family to support him in the realization that he was different, and there was nothing bad or worse, evil about the difference.   
As he laid back on his soft bed, this time without bothering to use the soft covers, Shibu tucked his hands behind his head, and began to puzzle out how exactly you tell someone who had been a stranger to you yesterday that they were a member of your own race, and therefore, also your brother.

How do you tell someone out of the mythic blue of Wakfu that they're an Eliotrope?

Shibu's mind diverged slightly at a particularly intimidating explosion of thunderous noise from the storm over Bonta.

Perhaps that was Shibu's best beginning.

First of all, Shareef was essentially marooned in Bonta, now that his ship had been destroyed, and his crew and captain scattered, in the midst of a crowd of survivors of the storm's ink black fury.

Shibu came to realize that the first thing Shareef would need when he awoke next would be a place to belong. Whatever else the castaway was or wasn't according to other people, including himself did not matter if Shareef felt himself a fearful stranger in an unknown land.

Shibu began to let his sharp mind begin to take Shareef's problems apart, into simpler questions, just as Shibu did when he was learning something new.

Laying there, with his brother less than a yard away, Shibu came to realize that the next subject he would have to learn was Shareef.

Shibu already felt in his heart of hearts that there would come a point where he could tell Shareef anything and everything. But that much trust and understanding could also be overwhelming. It was something that had to be earned and shared as the two began to know and understand one another better.

Shibu decided to begin with small, trusting steps, like the ones he had used in offering water to Shareef. The castaway with a green eyes had already taken one step of unique trust by sipping offered water from Shibu's cupped hand. He had also seen that same trust flash across Shareef's clear green eyes. It wasn't just a matter of the water, or of a survival instinct alone. Shareef had shown his own decision to trust Shibu. And perhaps that trust, shared and returned, could build the beginning both Shibu and Shareef needed.

Shibu turned his head gently, to look over toward the closed curtains which surrounded Shareef's hospital bed. As he did, something gentle but insistent pushed at Shibu. Shibu didn't like the idea of not being able to see Shareef.

It was a small, and infinitesimal feeling from deep down inside him. And given the nature of the emergency swirling around not only the two of them, but the entire Kingdom of Bonta, perhaps it was beyond silly.

But before Shibu could think about it anymore, he was up, off of his bed, and onto his feet, walking softly toward the wall of curtains which separated him from Shareef. He unbuttoned them gently, with no particular urgency or dislike, and simply swept them aside with a quick movement of his hand. His turn back in the direction of his own bed covered about half the distance between the two beds. Here again, was another wall of curtains. As Shibu was now dressed, and awake, if not yet discharged, he saw little functional need to keep the curtains in place.

Shareef's bed curtains were already unfastened, so sweeping them back and out of the way was equally simple, and after a few seconds, Shibu lighted again on his own assigned bed, casually resuming his thinking position as if little else had happened.

But as he returned to thinking matters over, there was something new, and more tranquil inside Shibu when he could turn his head casually to one side and see Shareef gently asleep in the next bed.

Shibu felt and heard Shareef's words and voice begin to play over again in his mind as he watched the sleeping castaway. Shareef had often used one word over again when speaking to Shibu. The word sounded more like a title than an adjective, and was always delivered in a friendly, almost deferential tone as the two spoke together. 

Shibu had never heard the word before, so he quickly concluded that the word did not come from his own language, nor any language he knew of from the Eliotrope culture. So it might be that the shipwreck survivor was from another more distant land than the kingdom of Bonta, or Brakmar, and most certainly somewhere beyond this continent.

So Shibu gave himself a task. Shareef had given him a word, and with it, perhaps a new title as well. Shibu felt that his first bit of insight might come from discovering the meaning of the word Shareef had used.

"Sadeek" Shibu said to himself quietly as he lay back on his bed. The word Shareef had used was gentle in tone and respectful.

Therefore, Shibu thought to himself that the word extended beyond simple thanks. Shareef had used another strange word after Shareef had helped him get a drink of water. So Shareef was not only well mannered, but well-educated, as the word he used with Shibu was probably honorific in intention and meaning.

As Shibu considered the problem, it came to him that there might be only two people within the great White Castle who might've heard the word before, and therefore understood its meaning.  
Shibu was still quite without shoes, as he rose from his hospital bed, standing still for just a moment to see that Shareef was still asleep before Shibu set off to find Master Chang.


	10. The Most Important Word

Shibu found a sudden advantage in his feet being bare. It would have taken another Ranger to hear Shibu's footsteps at all while he was wearing his unique shoes. But without them, Shibu's footsteps were as quiet as his own thoughts.

He could have easily crept out of the castle keep hospital, and down any one of the white stone corridors which honeycombed the most formidable location in all of Bonta Castle.

Shibu began to take a step, but then thought better of it. If Felicity came by, and noticed he was gone, there might be more noise and upset then there was advantage in his leaving quietly.  
So Shibu stole another quick look at Shareef, still blissfully asleep in the bed opposite his own.

"See you soon, Brother." He whispered quietly, with a gentle and protective tone in his words.

Then he turned on silent feet, and rather than leaving the castle keep itself. Shibu walked toward the nurses station, where Felicity was still hard at work.

"Good morning again, Felicity." Shibu spoke in a soft whisper, so as not to startle the young Enripsa nurse. Felicity looked up from the never ending flow of patient records across her desk, and gave Shibu a warm smile in return for his consideration.

"Good morning yourself, handsome." Felicity replied adding a wink to a whisper of the same tone that Shibu had used. Felicity enjoyed watching Shibu blush ever so slightly, with the same strawberry tones across his high cheekbones as could be seen in his mother's face.

"I'm feeling fine." Shibu replied after a somewhat awkward moment to contain his feelings. "I have to go find Master Chung. There's something important we need to talk over." Shibu related.

Felicity suddenly looked askance at Shibu.

"Well, you are looking cuter than normal." Felicity began. "But I'm not quite sure that that's enough reason to give you a conditional medical release." Felicity told him, suddenly sounding just a bit officious in her capacity as an assistant nurse.

"Please, Felicity!" Shibu interjected, trying hard to keep his voice down to a hospital whisper. "It's really important, and it could help one of your patients get well." Shibu explained fast.

"Is that so?" Felicity asked, working the situation for all it was worth. "I know you can do anything, Sir Shibu, but just when exactly did you become a doctor?" Felicity wanted to know, sounding slightly more edgy this time.

"Not so much a doctor." Shibu replied shaking his head lightly. "But perhaps a bit more of a psychologist." Shibu replied, somehow managing to sound both contrite and urgent at the same time.

Felicity looked over the desk at Shibu, and after what seemed a moment that lasted all week, she gave him another sly wink.

"Go on Shibu." Felicity said at last. "I just wanted to hear that sweet voice of yours asking me nicely." Felicity's confession was punctuated by a slight and very girlish giggle that rose above the gentle sound of their shared whisper.

"I'll put you down as having been conditionally released." Felicity told him as she reverted to an assistant nurse again. "But if you feel dizzy, out of breath, or you get a headache, you have to promise to come back here right away, no matter what. Deal?" Felicity asked, as she exhibited her genuine concern for Shibu's continued welfare.

"Deal!" Shibu shot back as fast as one of the arrows from his bow. "You're a sweetheart, Felicity. Best care anywhere!" Shibu told her, without any trace of flattery.

This time, it was Felicity's turn to blush.

Because she understood that Shibu also knew that there was nothing in this world she could deny him when he asked for it.

"By the way, sweetness, have you seen my shoes by any chance? I looked all around and couldn't find them anywhere." Shibu asked offhandedly as he turned to leave.

Felicity rattled through some of the papers in one of the folders, and then look back at Shibu with a warm smile.

"Property records indicate that Cici took them when she left. So she would know where they are." Felicity answered. "I can give you a pair of slippers, if you like?"

Shibu considered the offer for a moment. But better no foot gear at all than strange foot gear which might affect his control.

"Thanks a lot, sweetness. But I'm better off this way for the moment. There's nothing sharp on these polished floors anyway." Shibu answered.

"But there still polished and slippery." Felicity answered back. "We don't want you back in here because of a bad fall." Felicity offered once again.

"I'll be all right, sweetness. You've seen me play boufball without shoes before."

It was true. Felicity was the most devoted in all the legions of Shibu's fans, and the truth was that even watching him standing still so close by nearly reduced her to the consistency of melted butter.

"Go on Shibu, get out of here, before I find another reason to keep you here all to myself." Felicity told him gently at last, though the thought of him leaving hurt her inside.

"Thank you sweetness." Shibu replied, meaning it more this time, more than he ever had before. "I'll make it up to you sometime, I promise."

Felicity sighed to herself gently, as Shibu stepped back and out of Felicity's doe-eyed vision. Once he was safely out of her sight, Shibu made a slight circular motion with his index finger, stepped thru a portal of blue light, and was gone.

Even with the extra-worldly storm outside the castle walls seeming to vent its unparalleled fury on everything and everyone in Bonta, Shibu could feel his teacher's Wakfu.

The unique sealed door and the endless hundreds of feet of sloping staircases were now as familiar to Shibu as the village where he had been born.

It took Shibu only a chain of four portals before he was standing at his master side, as if both had been together all day, doing nothing more than enjoying the timeless Eliotrope artworks painted on the unique blue stones which covered the walls of the ancient caverns beneath Bonta Castle.

"Greetings, Sir Shibu." The master Sage said with a trace of warm familiarity in the depth of his voice.

"Hello Master!" Shibu replied brightly, for he was genuinely glad to be in the presence of his teacher once again. "Master?" Shibu continued. "I need a word." Shibu inquired directly.

Master Chang smiled, ever so slightly at his unique young student.  
"Words are very important, my youthful knight-in-waiting. Perhaps the most important things in all this world, or any world." Master Chang replied, sounding suitably cryptic for a Sage of his stature and the immense number of his years.

"Yes, Master!" Shibu replied. "This is a special word that comes from a survivor of the storm. It is unlike any word I have ever heard before." Shibu spoke more slowly, weighing each word of explanation carefully.

"I understand." Master Chang replied. "Knowing how well and carefully you read practically everything, if you have not heard the word before, nor seen it in your books, we may conclude that the word is from a language with which you are not familiar." Master Chung reasoned, progressing one step at a time, mostly so he could watch Shibu's brilliant blue eyes light up along the way.

"Yes Master, I believe this to be so as well!" Shibu replied, eager to supply any other clues which might reveal the answer to his quest. 

"The speaker of this word came off of a trading ship which ran aground on the shoals near Bonta." Shibu continued, as Master Chang's face took on a pensive expression as Shibu spoke.

"If he is a stranger to these lands, that trading ship has brought him far, indeed." Master Chung surmised quietly, considering the problem that now lit up the sage's silver eyes.

"I hope to learn more about his lands, and of his people, by understanding the words which he spoke when I helped him." Shibu explained a bit more quickly this time. "I thought perhaps something from your own library, perhaps a dictionary of foreign words might give us insight along with our answer."

The sage smiled brightly at his pupil, admiring the sagacity of one so young by comparison. "Perhaps so, Shibu." Master Chang replied. "Can you repeat the word, and make it sound as close to what it sounded like when you heard it spoken?" Master Chung wish to know.

Shibu nodded eagerly. "Yes, Master. I can." Shibu replied quickly. 

"The most common of the strange words was pronounced "Sadeek." Shibu related. "From the tone in which it was spoken, I believe it to be some sort of honorific, if that means anything."

When Master Chung turned silently to look directly at Shibu, the master's eyes were alight with admiration for his student.

"It is indeed an honorific, my young Shibu. It is perhaps the most meaningful honorific in any language, as a matter of fact, it's meaning can transcend all the words in every language." Master Chang answered.

"Then you have heard this word before, my venerable Master?" Shibu asked with a note of excitement building in his own voice. "It must be a very fine and powerful magical word." Shibu conjectured.

"Indeed it is, young one." Master Chang continued. "In the language of those who travel the vast tracts of never-ending sand, it is not just a word. It is both a vow, and a promise." Master Chang related to Shibu. "In their language,"Sadeek" is "friend."

The simplicity of it, and yet, the depth of it almost swept Shibu entirely off of his feet! He quickly moved to a chair, and sat down heavily, mostly to keep from falling over where he had stood only a moment before.

"Master, there's something else which you need to understand about the castaway who addressed me in this way." Shibu now confessed to the elderly Sage.

"And what else have you discovered, young Shibu?" Master Chung asked him with a practiced air of calm and detachment.

"Master, his name is Shareef, and I believe him to be an Eliotrope." Shibu concluded, stating the momentous conclusion in as few words as he could manage.

* * *

The soaking wet leader of the stretcher bearers kicked heavily at the wooden door before him.  
Slowly, and with great effort to guard against the teeth of the storm, the wooden door was opened just enough to admit the four men and the burden they carried. Before the bearers at taken a half dozen steps inside the hospital, the great wooden door was not only closed against the storm, but bolted as well.

"We've got another live one here." The leader of the team called out to one of the Enripsa nurses who fluttered up to the party.

"Get him into bed number Ten-A." The Enripsa nurse ordered sharply. "It looks as if this one is our new priority patient."

The leader of the stretcher bearers nodded shortly, and the foursome took up a quick step toward a special row of beds separated slightly from the others. These were in a separate row on the far side of the room, it was also where most of the staff of the hospital were currently gathered.

The quartet of stretcher bearers shifted from carrying their burden to a simple "tilt and slide" method of easing the hospital's newest patient into his bed. He was immediately surrounded by a trio of Enripsa healers who set about using their brushes and other techniques to heal the superficial wounds visible as large bruises that could be seen even under the man's waterlogged coat, and the dress uniform beneath.

"We need to get that uniform off of him. It certainly not helping matters, and it certainly not helping us. Bearers!" The Enripsa said sternly at the end of her statement to the pair of colleagues at her side.

One of the stretcher bearers stepped forward, drawing a dirk from the sheath on his belt. With an expert touch that never even approached the patient's skin, the armored stretcher bearer sliced down the length of the coat, using one cut down the center, together with one on each side,and then along each ornate sleeve. It was so quickly and expertly done that the waterlogged garment fell away from the man's body in panels, and with a quick rolling motion from the stretcher bearers was also taken away from the man's back. 

All that remained of his formal dress was a fine linen shirt, also translucent with water, and a fine pair of breaches. These were left alone for the moment, as another of the stretcher bearers removed the well-made but tight fitting shoes from the man's feet, and let them drop to the floor along with the slices of his waterlogged coat.

The stretcher bears then stood to one side, retrieving their familiar canvas and would sling that had brought the man into the hospital.

The four of them departed without another word, each knowing the beach out front of the armory turned hospital station was littered with bodies that still might retain some spark of life if they could be helped quickly enough. As the stretcher team went after someone else in need, other members of the nursing staff closed in around the bed, drying, wrapping, and redressing their newest patient into clothing more fit for a hospital's sanitary environment.

They laid him down on a soft bed, covered him with a clean sheet, and the thick green woolly blanket. Once he was tucked in securely, another team of nurses took his vital signs and dutifully recorded them into his hospital records. After several minutes of crowded but coordinated work, the only thing missing from those records was the name of the patient himself.

Stretched out as he was in bed, the patient no longer wore any of his water soaked finery, nor bore any tattoo or mark that could convey a hint of his name.

For now, identification was a formality that could be taken care of when the patient was closer to recovery. Standard hospital procedure now that the victim was in stable condition was simply to let him rest.

As the coordinated medical team moved on to the next bed and the next patient in the urgent care row, another team of hospital workers and volunteers moved in to clean up the area around the new patient's bed. They dutifully collected the patient's shoes, and the cutup remains of his heavy dress uniform coat.

As one of them began to pick up one part of what had been the lapel of the dress coat, a small box tumbled out of one of the pockets, and hit the floor like a delicate golden egg. The impact broke the delicate golden box and scattered fine powder across the clean white marble floor. But laying conspicuously among the scattering of snuff, there was a small, tightly bound bit of parchment paper. The paper began to unroll once it was free of the bottom of the snuff box. A moment later, it was plucked up from the floor by a keen eyed Sadida hospital assistant. As her colleagues swept up the scattered snuff, she worked with ultimate curiosity to first unroll, and then to unfold the delicately concealed piece of paper. As she finally flattened it on to her palm, her loud gasp caused one of the emergency nurses to flutter over and see if she was all right.

"I think this paper belongs to that man there." Said the voluptuous brown girl dressed largely in strategically clipped oversized palm leaves.  
The Enripsa nurse took the paper, and held it up to the light so that she could read the stain of the ink which had run across it. The only thing legible at the bottom of the note was a name.

"Captain Soames, if I read this right." The Enripsa related to the other members of her group.

"Well that certainly fits with what's left of his coat, and what might be a uniform." Said one of the other Enripsa healers. "Very well then. Until we know different, or at least until he can tell us different, I'll record his name and rank as being "Captain Soames." The first Enripsa said with finality.

"All right, Celine." The middle member of the Enripsa trio spoke up. "But it seems to me that will be quite a while before he'll be able to tell us very much at all."

"That's as might be, Krista." Celine replied sounding officious. "But we have to call him something, and until we know better, that much will do." Celine continued. "Now, I need your help with the patient in bed number six." The Enripsa healer directed, getting the trio back on track for a long line of work which lay ahead.

* * *

Master Chang's silver eyes flashed brightly at the revelation made by his young protégé. In the elder sages mind, there was nothing to be gained by asking Shibu if he was sure, or certain about what he suspected. Master Chang also understood that Shibu would never, and could never make such a profound statement unless Shibu himself was certain.

"Fascinating!" Master Chang said gently, even as Shibu had to steady himself in the chair where he sat. "It would mean great and momentous change, for yourself and for Bonta." The silver eyed sage added. "And for you, it would mean even more. It means that you are no longer alone, but it also means your responsibilities have multiplied."

Shibu looked at his master, taking in the sum of the elderly sage's wisdom.

"That is part of the problem, Master." Shibu related, still sounding slightly breathless as so many different thoughts rolled around and around inside both his head, and his heart. "I'm not certain what I should do, or how I should do it, if I do anything." Shibu replied. "I don't suppose that makes much sense." Shibu added. "I'm sorry master, but for the first time in my life, I'm really not certain of what I should do, or how I should do it. I don't like feeling this way." Shibu continued mixing apology with a trace of frustration that could not be missed.

Master Chang smiled gently in Shibu's direction, his silver eyes bright with their usual inquisitive and sympathetic glow. "This is called growing up, my little brother." Master Chang replied. "I wish it could be as easy for you as so many other things. But growing up is much more complex, because you are not the only one affected by what you do, and what you say." The Silver Sage offered gently to the younger Eliotrope.

"I've sort of figured that out already, Master." Shibu replied, sounding pensive rather than cocky. "When I found out the truth about who I was, I had you, and I had a family. But Shareef has no one that we know of."

"That is where you're wrong, little brother. Shareef has you. And that is a very good start for both him, and for you." Master Chang replied, sounding deep and serious, in keeping with his role as an Elder Sage.

"Poor Shareef is in a different place than I was." Shibu thought out loud. "I've grown up with my skills, they were there even when I didn't understand what they were, or where they came from." Shibu summarized. "But Shareef is different. I don't think he knows who he is, and if he does, he's made a good effort at hiding it away from just about everyone." Shibu added, the tone of his voice rising slightly along with his frustrations.

"How do I begin?" Shibu wondered out loud. "Where do I begin?" If I simply sit him down and tell him he's a member of another race, he might well think me to be crazy." Shibu said. "And if he is trying to hide away from everyone else, what is to stop him from simply denying everything, and walking away?" Shibu asked, sounding more lost and frustrated as he approached the most difficult question in his mind.

"Gently, little brother." Master Chang replied soothingly." You take too much only upon yourself. Remember that Shareef has a mind, and has a heart, and I would venture that they are both very much akin to your own." The Silver Sage told Shibu firmly. "But no matter what decisions Shareef makes for his own life, there is only one place you can begin. Tell him and show him the truth you know, and the truth you have lived as an Eliotrope." Master Chang counseled. "Once you have given him the truth as you know it, the decisions Shareef makes must be as honest and true as the ones you made once upon a time from your own heart."

Shibu rested his elbows on his knees, and put his chin into his cupped hands as he sat as still as a stone for a few moments, thinking things over.

"Master?" Shibu asked in a quiet tone a minute or two later.  
"If he is willing, may I bring Shareef down here and show him the caverns?"

"That is not my decision to make. You are the Guardian, Shibu. It is you who must decide, as a representative of your people." Master Chang replied solemnly.

"Not of my people, Master, but our people." Shibu replied sounding both serious and committed.

"Then you have decided, my noble Guardian?" Master Chang asked with a serious tone in his voice.

"Yes, Master." Shibu replied solemnly. "If Shareef is an Eliotrope, he should not have to run from it, nor hide himself away. I will show him his birthright, as I was shown my own. That way, before he decides to do anything, he will at least know the truth of his own beginnings." Shibu replied.

"Now I see the mind and feel the strength of the chosen Guardian." Master Chang replied, with his silver eyes sparkling as he looked at Shibu. "Good luck Shibunen, and made the goddess Eliotrope stand with both of you." Master Chang added.

Shibu rose from where he was seated, and squared himself, standing straight and tall before he bowed from the waist to Master Chang.  
"Thank you Master, I hope you will remain, so that when the time comes, you may meet Shareef also. I am sure he would value your opinions and wisdom as much as I do."

Master Chang turned ceremoniously to Shibu, returning the guardian's bow with one of his own, that took the taller Sage down to one knee before Shibunen. "If you wish it, my Guardian, I shall remain here, and await both of you. And Shibu?" Said master Chang as he rose once more.

"Yes, master?" Shibu asked, looking back over his shoulder as he stood at the base of the staircase, ready to cast a portal.

"All my best hopes for both of you."

"Thank you, my Master, and my Friend." Shibu replied before he made a circular gesture with one finger, jumped feet first  
into the circle of blue light, and was gone and out of sight better than halfway up the long subterranean staircase, and headed back to the castle.


	11. Storm-Tossed Hearts

When Shibu came through the portal he had cast at the top of the staircase before the sealed door, he stopped where he stood, and was quiet for a long moment.

After a moment of reflection, the touch of his palms on the sealed door open the door before him without effort.  
Shibu stepped through those doors, and back into Bonta Castle, and into a new world for himself and others.

Usually, Shibu would use his ground pounding Ranger run to cover any distance inside the white marble hallways of the castle. Instead, Shibu walked slowly away from the doors which led to the cavern far below, and he walked back toward the hospital in the castle keep one slow pace at a time.

For a trained Ranger, it was a matter of practically no distance at all. But as Shibu walked on, and his thoughts deepened, he realized he still had a long way to go.

All too soon, a familiar figure in stained silver battle armor recognized Shibu as he approached the doors to the hospital.

"Shibu!" Matheson said in a suddenly suppressed whisper more fitting to a hospital then to a Royal Castle. "We heard they turned you loose. Is there anything we can help you with?" The eldest of a trio of brothers wanted to know.

Shibu looked up from his deeper thoughts, saw Matheson for the first time, and smiled. "Well, perhaps there is. Have you got a minute?" Shibu asked the senior guard more as a friend than as a knight.

For you, Shibu?" Matheson asked in reply. "I'll make all the time you need, on duty or off."

Shibu smiled, just when he needed most to smile. "Thanks, old friend. But this is personal, not in the line of duty." Shibu replied.

"Nobody here but us." Matheson replied, returning Shibu's smile, and sensing that his friend in the red silks needed a friend, rather than a castle guard.

"May I ask you something?" Shibu began haltingly.

"Shibu, between you, me, and the Pike, you can ask me anything you want in this whole kingdom." Matheson answered, waiting for Shibu to gather his thoughts.

"I've watched the three of you live together, work together, and row together." Shibu began slowly, not wanting to recall the uneasy memory of the day just passed. "It may sound strange, but what's it like, having brothers?"

Matheson smiled warmly at Shibu's question. For a moment, he wasn't exactly sure how to answer, or exactly what to say. So the eldest of the trio followed Shibu's example, and just spoke from his heart.

"It's the finest thing in all the world, Shibu." Matheson answered. "I'd rather have my brothers than I would have the throne of Bonta herself."

Matheson's answer put an odd glimmer of surprise into Shibu's pure blue eyes. "Why?" He asked.

"It's a question of being a part of something, and of someone. When we're together, we are more than just three people related by blood and flesh. I know that I have two people who would do anything in the world that they could do to make me happy, safe, and well." Matheson tried to explain, slowly at 1st, but then with his voice rising.

"And what is more, my brothers know that I would do the same for them, just as quickly. It is a question of the whole exceeding the sum of the parts. If you take my meaning, Shibu." Matheson continued, thinking through the explanation as he spoke, and making sure that every word was exactly the word it needed to be.

"I think I understand." Shibu replied slowly. "I would do the same for Cici, Felice, and for Master Chung as you would do for your brothers, and as they would do for you." Shibu responded.

Matheson smiled, his teeth oddly clean and white set into a smile that spread across a face younger than it looked.

"That's exactly the way, Shibu." Matheson replied. "Your family, brothers or sisters as they may be, help you to be more than you think you can be at times."

Shibu nodded slowly, as the simple words from his friend gave Shibu a different point of view.

"But in your case, you've been truly blessed." Matheson observed." Most people don't get to choose their families. But your family chose you." Matheson observed. "That makes the bond between you even stronger and more unique. When you take someone into your family by choice, I reckon it's the extra love that forges the bonds."

Shibu looked up to the eldest of the Brothers Matheson in more ways than one, his vivid blue eyes slightly moist.

"Matheson?" Shibu began. "If it was up to me, I would knight you for just being yourself. Thank you so much." Shibu replied.

"No worries, friend Shibu." Matheson replied.

The word made Shibu smile all the more broadly, as Matheson turned, and pulled open the great wooden door of the hospital inside the keep.

This time, as he stepped through the familiar archway, and the massive door closed easily and silently behind him, Shibu's steps, and their pace had taken on a new much lighter and more determined stride. Shibu showed more of the Ranger's stride as he made for a familiar bed, and its even more familiar occupant.

Shibu was respectfully quiet in the hospital environment, but when he reached Shareef's bed, he brushed away the closed curtains around his bed more like they were clouds than panels of heavy white cloth.

"Shareef, how are--" but Shibu's softly whispered greeting was brought up short, as Bonta's newest knight found himself speaking to an empty bed!

The sensation of shock and panic that Shibu felt tied his stomach into a hard knot before he could exhale.  
But almost immediately, Shibu felt his thinking mind rise up like a mighty dragon, and simply sweep away his momentary confusion and worry.

He turned away from the bed, and it was instantly forgotten. Shibu had someone else more important to think about, and then, he thought first about Felicity.

Shibu moved at a Ranger's pace toward the nursing station, where Felicity was still fighting her battle against a never-ending tide of paperwork.

"Hey Felicity?" Shibu said in her direction, slightly above the volume of a whisper that one would normally use in a hospital.

"Why hello handsome." Felicity said somewhat dreamily as the sight of Shibu instantly lifted her from the trenches of paperwork warfare. "Back so soon? Is anything the matter, sweet and bronze?" Felicity wanted to know, her tone turning somewhat urgent as she spoke.

"No Felicity, I'm just fine." Shibu replied with a note of his own urgency. "I need to know what happened to the patient who was in the bed across from me." Shibu continued.

"Well, that information is supposed to be private. But for you, anything, Shibu." Felicity replied in a sweet sounding tone.

"That one was an odd duck if you ask me." Felicity began. "You hadn't been gone more than a minute, before he got up out of bed, wrapped only in a sheet, and signed himself out." Felicity related, her surprise at the entire incident still showing on her face. "When I asked him where he was going, all he would say is that he had to find someone. Can you beat that for being odd?" Felicity asked across the desk of the nursing station.

"And you have no idea where he's gone?" Shibu asked quickly.

"Why no, I haven't the slightest idea." Felicity remarked offhandedly. "But if you want to find him, someone wrapped in a sheet walking through the middle of a typhoon in a big city shouldn't be that hard to find." Felicity observed.

"Shibu?" Felicity asked, her tone of voice and demeanor changing slightly as she spoke. "I finally gotten up the courage to ask you something." Felicity stated flatly. "Will you go out with me, like on a date, once all this is over?" Felicity asked, mustering an admirable amount of courage behind her uncertain sounding words.

"Sure Felicity, of course I would." Shibu replied absently. "But for the moment, I have someone else that I have to go out and find. I'll see you later. If you see Cici, send her after me, would you please?" Shibu asked seriously.

"Oh, Sweet Shibu. You just know that I'd do anything for you, don't you?" Felicity gushed with happiness. Then, the young Enripsa noticed the worry and urgency etched into Shibu's face.

"Darling?" Felicity dared. "Whatever is the matter?" The young Enripsa asked.

"He's out there somewhere, in trouble, and not just from the storm." Shibu replied quickly, as Felicity's lighthearted moment passed.

"Then you're just the one to go find him, and help him." Felicity spoke up with uncommon resolution. "Don't you worry about a thing. I'll be waiting here when all this is over, I promise."

"I'm sorry, sweetness, but this has to come first." Shibu said with a trace of genuine sympathy to the openhearted girl.

"Hey sweet boy, I'm Enripsa. Ask me about duty again sometime when we're alone." Felicity replied with determined encouragement and patience in her voice.

"You really are sweet, Felicity." Shibu replied from the heart. "Do me a special favor, and find Cici as soon as you can, please?" Shibu asked before turning back toward the great doors of the hospital inside the keep.

"Count on it, sweet boy." Felicity replied, making Shibu an Enripsa promise with her voice, her attitude, and most of all, her heart.

This time, Shibu didn't wait for the guards to open the doors. Before anyone could stop him, and almost before he could think, Shibu was out of the massive doors, which he quickly pushed closed behind him, and he was facing the teeth of the storm.

He felt a cold, almost wintry wind bite into him, like a creature with one thousand fine, needle sharp teeth. But what was worse by far was the pelting sheets of an almost greasy, incongruously warm rain that hit his bare flesh like a whip from every direction imaginable.  
Shibu forced his mind and his body to divide for a moment, freeing him from the pain and shock of the storm around him.

Shibu's first and only thought now was about Shareef. He looked this way, and that, while he still had the doors at his back, hoping that Shareef would have been momentarily stopped by the storm. But there was no one in sight. 

Then, Shibu thought about his first bit of luck. There was one, and only one path anyone out here could follow. Shibu bolted down the elevated white marble path trying a Ranger's run, even in the face of the powerful storm.

But even Shibu's natural strength was tested and challenged, as the storm seemed to batter and play with him the same way a cat played with a hapless mouse. For every stride forward, the wind and the rain made him take two to the left, to the right, or exactly backward to the place where he had been a moment before.

Shibu threw up his forearms in front of his face, and pushed ahead with all the strength he could muster, progressing with painful slowness by the half step as the storm around him seem to howl like a beast kept at bay, and then suddenly set free.

There was no sign that anyone, anywhere had passed this way at all, as every sign and every trace that Shibu could track was washed away or scattered by the fury of the storm.  
And then, suddenly, about one hundred yards up the path, the sky itself seem to tear open and launch a new barrage, directly at Shibu.

He had been born, in a sense, on a lightning bolt himself. From the time he was old enough to remember anything, Shibu held an almost hypnotic fascination with both the power and the seeming magic which made up the lightning bolts, and the deep booming thunder which was always their companion.

But this time, along with the greasy, seemingly black rain, the lightning bolts seem to hold a uniquely evil malevolence. The first of them landed so close to the doors of the keep itself that the timbers of the great door were left with an ugly black scar, and the storm wind was scented with scorched wood for just a moment.

Shibu knew somehow to keep moving, and he crested the wave of each windblown sheet of rain with a strong half step that only his unique physiology would allow him to make.

The next in a long series of lightning bolts crashed into the white marble pavement, some tens of yards along the path, ever closer to Shibu. He had always enjoyed the odd, refreshing scent that had lingered in the air after a lightning strike. But now, his deepest instincts told him that the familiar scent was an instinctual indication of danger.

Shibu could see the pavement stones along the walkway bubble and blister as the unimaginable heat and power of the crackling lightning transformed the stone itself into molten marble.

In that instant, he let his natural sense of self-preservation move him, running for just a moment deeper and deeper into the black maw of storm clouds, which bared fangs made of the lightning bolts.  
Just as the hazy outlines of Bonta Castle seemed to flicker before his diminished vision, another instinct, born in a place inside him that he did not know, touched Shibu's thinking mind.

The sensation itself came to Shibu as the sound of an echoed shout, even though Shibu knew that not even the voice of a Great Dragon could pierce the shroud of power and fear in which the storm wrapped its victims.

Yet, the call which echoed across his mind was something that Shibu could hear, as plainly as his own heartbeat, or the splattering sound of huge raindrops battering against his upraised arms.

Pure instinct and the resonance of the call forced Shibu to look off to the left for a moment.

There, in a broken spot between two sections of lightning shattered white marble wall, there was a shape among the half melted stones which did not match the others.

Instantly, Shibu not only knew, but he understood instinctively that this was his target.

Shibu turned his shoulders into the storm wind, and fought his way step-by-step closer to the broken, irregular blocks struck and cast about by the lightning.

He didn't understand how or why, but Shibu found himself kicking frantically at the smaller pieces of broken stone to clear the way for his approach to the crumpled form which at first glance was as white as any of Bonta's marble stones.

In what seemed a time between an hour, and forever, Shibu gathered all of his strength to kneel down over the crumpled white figure, and fought to keep himself from being blown away like the smaller fragments of stone caught in the teeth of the storm.

Once he was there, Shibu never hesitated. He called upon all his strength to scoop up the soaking wet, sheet wrapped figure, and lift Shareef from the ground among the fallen stones.

But now, he carried an extra burden. It more than doubled his weight, and took better than half his strength even before he could move against the bestial storm.

But move Shibu did.

Somehow, by the quarter pace, and occasionally by the half pace, Shibu challenged the storm with every ounce of strength he could bring to bear.

The way back toward the Castle was no less forgiving than the way forward, and because his arms were full, Shibu could no longer shield his face and eyes. The scourge of lashing rain seemed to take delight in stealing away his sight, and pushing him around on the marble path like an insignificant windblown leaf.

He simply set his instincts and his unique inner sight on his destination, somewhere ahead of him, as he turned around in what seemed to be the clouds of gathering inky blackness.  
Shibu moved, because he had to move. Those same instincts told him that to simply stand still was to die.

But then, something deep within him seem to scream that he had seen enough death, and enough life for one day.  
This would not be his day to die. Because someone else was also depending on him, Shibu kept fighting, kept moving, obeying some deeper energy born inside him, he moved on, back toward the Castle keep.

Then, directly in front of Shibu, there appeared a single bright shaft of green light glowing as brightly as any of the warning fires along the coast of Bonta before the storm.

For a moment, Shibu thought that his mind was giving up, along with his body. But as he looked again at the green light, there was something as familiar about it as the face of an old friend!  
Before the wind and the rain could lash Shibu into another stumbling movement, another of the green shafts of light seem to come closer to him. He was bleary-eyed and dizzy as the shafts of green light seemed to multiply, surrounding Shibu in a nearly perfect circle.

As the green light seem to glow all around him, it provided a clarity to his vision. Shibu felt the touch of another power, as great as the storm itself, as his thinking mind rose once more in the shadowy image of a huge and powerful Dragon. It's presence wiped away the pain and the water from his eyes, as well as the mist from his mind. And suddenly, Shibu recognized what the arrows were!

He stumbled forward, half spinning, half falling, trying to keep Shareef's head up in the crook of one arm, so that he wouldn't drown in the cascade of falling water. He reached out with his other arm, letting Shareef's legs drop for a moment, and allowing him just enough reach to grasp desperately at the green arrow closest to him.

Shibu suddenly felt nothing at all, and heard nothing at all, as if the storm, and the entire World of the Twelve had simply vanished. His senses deserted him, as his world went completely white for a moment, and then faded into a blackness deeper by far than the malevolent storm.


	12. Sadiq

Chapter 12-Sadiq

Shibu's return to consciousness was a flash of white light that made him sit bolt upright in bed. He had hoped to awaken somewhere in the castle, but this location, as familiar as it was, surprised even him. 

His own bed, in his own bedroom within the tall confines of the observation tower!  
But the first thought to cross his mind made him swallow his surprise at the unexpected homecoming.

Where was Shareef?

Shibu found himself looking around about him with a slightly frantic air.

"Don't worry little brother, he's right here, and he's safe again, thanks to you."

"Cici!" Shibu interjected with enough overflowing happiness to practically wash him out of his own bed!  
Shibu began the peeling motion that tossed back a pair of thick green blankets, leaving only the top sheet for cover as he began to swing himself out of bed and towards Cici.

But to Shibu's surprise, it was Cici herself who put a strong and insistent gloved hand on Shibu's broad shoulder.

"None of that for now, little brother!" Cici replied with an interjection of her own, and a touch that made it authoritative. "You have orders from the King, as well as from Felice to stay put for once, until the storm, whatever it is, is absolutely clear of the city, and the province." Cici told Shibu in a tone of voice that left no room at all for argument.

"And that goes for both of you, not just you, Shibu." Another familiar voice put into the conversation.

"Hey, Felicity!" Shibu said with an honest smile, as his head turned in the other direction and he caught sight of the Enripsa healer.

"Don't you dare "hey" me, Mister hero!" Felicity replied sharply. "You scared me, you scared all of us, and the entire city of Bonta is worried that you might be dead!" Felicity informed Shibu in a curt and prickly tone.

"Since it is becoming difficult to sleep, may a visitor add something to the conversation?" An unfamiliar but educated voice asked quietly from close by, on the other side of the bed.

"Shareef!" Shibu said with a note of excitement, mingled with obvious relief. "Sorry to wake you, sadiq, but as you can hear, the louder Felicity is, the more she cares." Shibu explained sociably as Felicity stood to one side of Shibu's bed, her slightly pointed ears practically steaming with pique.

"It's all right, Shareef." Felicity replied at last. "Since you are a guest of Bonta, you may say anything you like."

"Thank you, oh most beautiful flyer." Shareef replied, using what little voice he had, along with his best manners.

Across the room, Felicity practically purred with delight at the complement, her anger with Shibu completely mollified for the moment.

"Sadiq Shibu did save a life, and for that, he may justly be called both a friend and a hero." Shareef said, sitting himself up in bed as he spoke, so he could get a good look at Shibu.

"Well, he did something right. I'll give him that." Felicity fumed once again. "But he did it in the entirely wrong way, and I may just never forgive him, for worrying not only all of us, but his Majesty, and the entire city of Bonta at the same time!" Felicity huffed, having worked up a good head of steam once again.

"I for one am glad he moved so quickly, but I see your point as well. It is good to know that one such as Shibu-Sadiq has so many fine people who care so much about him." Shareef said evenly and calmly.  
His tone seemed to dissipate the tension in the small white stone room, and with it at last the focus of Felicity's steaming temper.

Felicity's attention shifted for just a moment, from Shibu who now had his arms tucked behind his head, looking all too good, and all too comfortable as the center of so much attention. Felicity's gaze shifted to Shareef, the mysterious visitor for whom Shibu had risked so much.

"Which brings us to our handsome, and well mannered guest." Felicity continued after taking a noticeable moment to collect her thoughts. As she spoke, Felicity floated to the other side of the room, to stand closer to Shareef.

"Shareef." Felicity repeated rolling his name around on her tongue, and also across her mind. "Well at least now we have a name for your medical records." Felicity added with a warm smile in Shareef's direction. "I suppose someone with decent manners should welcome you to Bonta, Shareef. My name is Felicity, I'm the assistant head nurse for Bonta Hospital." Felicity said by way of introduction. "We're sorry for the way you came to us, but were not sorry at all that you're here, and that for the moment you seem to be doing quite well. But we will keep you in bed for a few days time after your second exposure to that beastly storm."

"Yes, nurse." Was the sum total of Shareef's reply, although the spare words came with a bright and charming smile from which Felicity found she could not look away.

"I must say, it is certainly nice to have such a polished and cooperative patient, for once. Rather than the sort we seem to get in the hospital most of the time." Felicity added in an edgy tone, which was accompanied by dagger eyes aimed directly at Shibu!

Felicity's glance was so withering that it made Shibu shrink down a bit in the bed, and pull the blanket up across his face until only his blue eyes were visible.

"All right Felicity, I think both of them understand." Cici spoke up. "Let's allow both of them to rest for a while." The redheaded Cra archer suggested firmly.

"Oh all right, Cici! Can't a girl have just a little fun with two handsome boys, once in a while?" Felicity replied in a slightly annoyed tone.

Cici sighed quietly in response. "These two need their beauty sleep, trust me." Cici replied. "I'm due back on watch, and the paperwork is stacking up downstairs." Cici added, giving Felicity of verbal nudge toward the door. The Enripsa nurse turned up her nose slightly, and fluttered away from Shareef's bedside, out the door, and back toward her nursing station.

"I'm going to be up here to visit both of you from time to time." Cici told them both as she turned to leave. "For now, I'll be sure that no one bothers you, not even Felicity. I'm sure the two of you have a lot to talk over."

The last part of Cici's remarks was pointed directly at Shibu, to whom she gave a familiar and knowing wink. "I'll see you two for supper, and if you both don't behave, I'll strap you both down for dessert, Cra's promise." Cici told them both sternly.

"Yes ma'am!" Came the response from Shareef by reflex alone.

Across the room, Shibu seemed much less intimidated. He smiled at Cici, and blew her a loving kiss. As she turned again, and tried to walk out.

"Love you, Sis!" Shibu called after her. "Can you bring mom up here too?" He called after her.

"I'll see what I can do." Cici's reply echoed back up the tower stairs and through the small bedroom. "Behave yourselves, or else!" Were the last words she called up to them both.

"If the others are anything like your sister, you have a most remarkable family, Sadiq." Shareef observed with a handsome white smile accented by his olive skin tone.

"There's only one like Cici." Shibu observed laconically. "If there were more, I fear the kingdom would fall." Shibu replied matching Shareef's smile in return. "Mom is an Enripsa, too." Shibu added.   
"But she's much more mellow then Felicity ever will be, I think."  
Shibu's honesty about those he cared for brought a warm chuckle from Shareef.

"I meant what I said, Sadiq." Shareef added in a slightly more serious tone. "I owe you a debt of gratitude that I can never repay." Shareef admitted seriously. "And I certainly hope that I may count on you also as a friend."

"Don't worry,Sadiq." Shibu replied brightly. "I understand how you feel, but you don't owe me anything at all. All that I did, I did for a friend, and friends do things for one another because they wish to do so. They do not "owe" each other." Shibu explained.

"You learn wicked fast." Shareef answered with a visible note of admiration for Shibu. "You have come to understand our word "Sadiq" much better than some of the people from my homeland."

As Shareef spoke, Shibu that his first look at Shareef's captivating green eyes. At the same moment, Shareef found himself gazing in return into Shibu's pure blue eyes. Shibu felt the small bedroom seemed to shrink, until, in his own mind, Shibu was sitting directly in front of the green eyed visitor, gently holding his hands as they spoke to one another. The image was so vivid, and the emotion behind it so compelling that Shibu had to move, in the same way his heart had to move to continue to beat.

Shibu stood up, peeling back one of the thick green blankets from his bed as he did so. And as he walked across the small room toward Shareef, Shibu let the blanket fall over and across his shoulders, both preserving his modesty, and giving Shareef a first glimpse of Shibu's warm bronze skin.

Shareef felt his throat go scratchy and dry, so that he could not speak as Shibu stepped across to his bed, sat down opposite him, and then folded his legs, sitting on them in such a way that both of them were separated by no more than arms length.

"Hello, Shareef Sadiq." Shibu said in a gentle quivering voice as he reached out, gently took Shareef's hands from under the edge of his blankets, and then folded his fingers softly around Shareef's palms.

At the moment of Shibu's touch, Shareef felt an image flow into his mind like a trickle of cool water. It was of himself, and Shibu, holding hands in the same fashion! It was as if, for one moment the two of them who had never met before, let alone taken hands, could see directly into the other's mind!

Shareef gasped gently, because along with the image of Shibu holding his hands, Shareef could feel an undeniable rush of warm energy. It seemed to race along every nerve in his body, gently washing over any pain or worry Shareef could feel for the moment. Instead, he was instantly relaxed, warm all over, and for the first time in what he knew to be too long, Shareef felt safe. But he also felt so much more than that. But in the moment, his voice failed him, and as the two of them took hands, Shareef shuddered deeply, leaned far forward, and embraced Shibu with all the new warmth and security he could feel flowing between them.

"Oh,Sadiq!" Shareef whispered gently to Shibu as his chin touched the strong bronzed shoulder, and rested there, as if it had belonged there forever.

Shibu held Shareef in his arms until the sweet sensation drove every trace of fear, pain, and doubt from Shareef's heart, body, and at last, from his very soul.

Shareef waited until the warm flows of energy all through him restored his voice, and then he spoke to Shibu in a gently adoring whisper.

"Oh, Shibu!" Shareef found the strength to say his name, and that in turn seem to restore more and more of his own strength.

"I know not who you are, yet." Shareef said quietly. "But my heart speaks, saying that you are for me, and that I am for you."

"Yes,Sadiq. Yes, Shareef." I have known and felt this since looking upon you for the first time." Shibu confessed quietly. "I feel that we are each part of the other somehow. And I cannot deny it, any more than I can deny the thoughts in my head, nor the beating of my heart." Shibu told his soulmate gently, quietly and with all the love that Shibu could feel within him.

"But how,Sadiq?" Shareef asked with both awe and surprise in his voice. "What miracle of all the ages is this?" Shareef asked gently, turning to Shibu for answers, because he had none. 

"Sweet Shareef, are you all right?" Shibu asked, more than a bit frightened.

"I see you, and feel you, as if in a dream." Shareef confessed. "I see a tree, and a baby bird, and the stars. The Sea Dragon, and a comet with two tails." Shareef whispered. "It is as if I was standing beside you, the entire time." What do you see, Sadiq?" Shareef asked urgently but gently.

"Sand." Shibu whispered. "I can feel the sun, and the heat. Then, I feel the cool of water, flowing from a well. But there is some..one else there. Someone not like us." Shibu replied.

That made Shareef smile, and the expression lent Shibu strength as well, banishing his momentary fear of Shareef being harmed.

"We are part of each other, Sadiq. As two brothers separated at birth." Shareef told Shibu gently.

"You are more sensitive than I, Shareef. You have touched the truth in the purity of the heart we share, Brother mine." Shibu told Shareef directly. "There is a deeper bond between us than you can foresee. For the truth is, we are of the same people, you and I." Shibu told Shareef, still hugging him close, while they held one another up.

"But I was born a half a world away, Sadiq. And you half a continent from here." Shareef replied. "How can this be?" He wanted to know.

"I have known it for many days, Sadiq." Shibu replied slowly. "Ever since they removed your--" Shibu stopped short. "What do you call that hat of yours, Brother?" Shibu asked seeming to casually change the subject for the moment.

"This?" Shareef replied, casually casting his eyes upward for a moment. "It is called a "keffiyeh" my Brother. I cannot remember a day that I have not worn one." Shareef shared. "But what was that you started to say?"

"Nothing, Shareef. "Could I try on your hat, and I'll let you try mine?" Shibu asked.

Shareef hesitated, holding something back for just a moment. Shibu could feel that now as well, as plainly as his own heartbeat.

"In my heart, I feel I can refuse you nothing that you ask, Shibu." Shareef replied softly. "But I am asking you not to ask this of me."

"I am here, Brother, and I will be yours and love you unconditionally until the stars burn out. You can know no shame in these blue eyes. Take off your hat, and I will take off mine, at the same time." Shibu replied sounding wonderfully loving and strong at the same time.

Shareef's green eyes met the gem-like purity of the powerful blue of Shibu's eyes once again. Shareef could feel nothing but love and understanding from Shibu wash over him like a mighty waterfall.. Something deep inside and close to Shareef whispered in a familiar voice that this time, there would be no more shame, and no more would Shareef's heart be broken.

Shareef nodded at last, lowering his head to Shibu just a bit.

"Remove it, if you will. I desire that there be no secrets between us, My Brother." Shareef said, his heart melting under Shibu's loving and tender blue eyes.

Shibu drew his right hand upward and away from the embrace for just a moment. "Close your eyes, Brother, for I promise that when you open them again, the whole world will change, for both of us." It took all of the willpower Shareef could muster to look away for a moment and close his eyes. As he did so, he took and even tighter grip on Shibu's torso.

With his right hand, Shibu reached down, and with a slight pull, overcame the tension of the two black bands that held Shareef's keffiyeh in place. As he did so, with his left hand Shibu reached up and swept his own hat from the top of his head.

"Open your sweet green eyes, my Brother, and from this moment until forever, know that we belong to each other." Shibu told him as he took hold of Shareef once again, holding him upright and steady, as he saw Shareef's green eyes meet his own eyes again. "And know that we will have no secrets from one another, just as you have wished." Shibu added, as Shareef's eyes looked away from Shibu's face, and looked higher up than his eyes.


	13. Family Secrets

Shareef's eyes looked up further, beyond Shibu's bronze face and blue eyes. After a moment of disbelief reflected in their green light, Shareef was trembling so violently that it shook even Shibu's solid, muscular frame.

Softly, as if he were touching something made of a dream, Shareef raised two fingers, which quivered so violently he had to fight for a moment to control them.  
Once they were still again, Shareef touched both fingertips to the base of Shibu's horns.

These were not the horns of gentle blue light which projected from the sides of his own head. These were sleek, smooth, and powerful. They looked as if nature herself had perfected a method for blending obsidian and the dense bone that marked a natural set of horns.

Then Shareef took in the sight of Shibu's own tall set of blue pointed horns which grew nearly to the same length as the natural horns which they bracketed. Shibu's blue horns carried a dozen shorter blue points on each, and their gentle luminescence bespoke another level of power that Shareef could only imagine.

Shibu took a gentle hand, and softly ran strong fingers over the top of Shareef's head, and through his luxurious crop of pure white hair. On the surface, it was slightly course, but beneath the top layer, Shareef's white locks were fine, warm, and as soft to the touch as the finest down.

"I think you're so handsome, my brother." Shibu complemented in a gentle whisper. "The sight of your eyes, and your beautiful skin steals my breath away every time I look at you." Shibu confessed quietly to Shareef. Shibu's blue eyes glimmered with what seemed to be a soft, flickering light as blue as his horns as he looked into Shareef's face for a moment, happily swimming in the beautiful green light which poured like an ocean wave from Shareef's tear filled eyes.

But for all the beauty and handsome strength in Shareef's olive skinned countenance, there was one major difference between the two of them. Shareef's blue horns were short, thicker stubs, no longer than his thumbs, and to Shibu's surprise they showed no points at all, in spite of Shareef being the slightly older of the two of them.

Shibu decided at first glance that the difference between them was no difference at all, and looking at Shareef's wonderfully open face, lit by green eyes filled with wonder and surprise, he could imagine no face anywhere that was more perfect, or more handsome than the one he took gently into both hands, and with the tilt of his head, Shibu kissed him, as gently and lovingly as he knew how, on both of those wonderful olive cheeks.

"Shee-bu?" Shareef murmured softly, wonder and surprise mingled in his green eyes.

"Yes, Shareef." Shibu answered gently. "It's me, only without the hat. And I'm still the one who loves you very much and always will, brother."

Overwhelmed, Shareef melted into Shibu's arms, broke down and cried as if he was letting go an entire lifetime worth of pain.

"Dear sweet Shibu!" Shareef whispered between sobs. "I thought myself cursed!"

"Cursed?" Shibu replied with shock equal to that which he suddenly saw in Shareef's face. "What kind of evil people ever told you such a thing, my brother?" Shibu inquired gently.

"The elders of my village." Shareef replied, his voice, and Shibu's strength combining to overcome his torrent of tears. "After my parents disappeared, the Elders raised me." Shareef recounted slowly, speaking each word in the recollection as if it caused him physical pain.

Shibu's gentle hold on Shareef never slackened. In fact, Shibu took Sharif completely into his arms, lifting Shareef from the bed as he held him close. Shareef wrapped his legs around Shibu's waist, while he also held him around the shoulders up above. Held this way, Shibu made certain Shareef was safe and secure. Shareef responded by simply melting into Shibu like a warm flow of candle wax.

"In my tenth year, I became very ill. When the sickness passed, I had these." Shareef paused, indicating his own vestigial horns.

"I suppose I was lucky." Shibu replied. "I just woke up one morning, and there they were, as natural as my hair or my fingernails growing." Shibu related to Shareef. "I've always worn my hat, from the first day I can remember, so no one ever saw my horns, even while they grew, and as I grew up underneath them." Shibu added.

"Your elders never beat you?" Shareef asked out of the blue.

This time, it was Shibu's turn to be shocked, and in something far beyond appearances. "They beat you?" Shibu said, his usually level voice mixing incredulity and a trace of rising anger at the thought that came with his question. Shibu also understood all at once the origins of the scars he had seen on Shareef's back while his clothes were soaked with water. Shibu shuddered deeply, imagining the pain and the stigma inflicted on Shareef, who must have been scarcely old enough to understand what was happening to him.

Shareef nodded gently, and looked away from Shibu, turning his head and face away as if the answer was the source of all of Shareef's shame and pain.

"The elders told me I was possessed." Shareef admitted in a deathly silent whisper. "One day, they decided that the "demon" had to die, or that I had to die." Shareef went on. "So the night before, I stole a small fishing boat, and sailed away to look for my parents."

Shibu's sudden flash of anger struck like one of the lightning bolts from the oily heart of the storm still spending itself outside of the castle. But that anger never touched Shareef, as Shibu fought for a moment of control and won. Although he was angry at the revelation, Shibu understood that such things had not been Shareef's choice, or his fault. Suddenly, all Shibu wanted to do, in the whole wide world, was to hold Shareef, and make his pain go away.

"The elders were wrong, my brother. You are not cursed, you are blessed." Shibu said with gentle conviction, and resolution in his voice which crushed the pain brought by the frightful and backward elders. If anyone had cursed Shareef, it had been his village elders and their sinister and backward ideas.

"All that is over, Shareef." Shibu said bringing the strength and resolution of his mind into the gentle determination Shareef could hear in Shibu's voice. "From today on, I'm going to show you who you are, what we are both together, and the wonderful things we can do when we choose."

"Shibu?" Shareef whispered gently as his crying and pain subsided, replaced by a hopeful light in his moist green eyes.

"Yes, my handsome brother?" Shibu responded.

Shareef managed a trace of a smile, which made Shibu smile in return.

"We're not like any people I have ever seen in all my travels in this world." Shareef began. "What do our people call themselves?" Shareef wanted to know.

"The word you need to hear is Eliotrope, my brother. We are Eliotropes, you and I." Shibu recited.

"Eliotrope." Shareef repeated more slowly, rolling the name around in both his head, and on his tongue. "It is wonderful!" He said at last.

"Yes, it is. Our people are named for a goddess who was Mother to all life, everywhere." Shibu related.

"Not bad for a first lesson, brother Shibu." Shareef replied. Shibu could sense that now Shareef's fear had been replaced by curiosity, and that his mind was as illuminated as his eyes were, as the two of them looked at one another.

"Shareef?" Shibu asked gently.

"Yes, my handsome brother Eliotrope?" Shareef responded brightly, this time with a healthy green light sparkling in his eyes.

"Here's your second lesson of the day." Shibu replied. "Your days of fear and being beaten are over. If anyone ever raises a hand against you again, they will answer to me, and to the power that these horns can bring to me when I need it." Shibu told Shareef firmly.

"I love you, too, Shibu." Shareef replied snuggling into Shibu's wonderfully strong chest once more. "I can show you things, too, brother mine." Shareef replied with a gentle whisper. "Things that I've learned on my travels, and from others who taught me many things along the way." Shareef told Shibu. "Combining what I know, with the strength you have, I know that I will have nothing to fear, ever again. And for that, I love you more than I shall ever be able to prove." Shareef continued. 

But the most precious gift you've given me today isn't only the name and nature of our people. The most wonderful gift you've given me is the knowledge that I'm no longer alone in the whole wide world. I have a brother, one who I love, unconditionally, forever and always." Shareef told Shibu, as Shibu sat down again on the edge of the bed, and the two of them snuggled together as close as if they were inside an egg.

"I also have a title, Shareef." Shibu explained. "It comes from part of an ancient medallion that was found with me the night that I was born." Shibu explained slowly as both Shareef and Shibu did their best to wrap themselves around each other.

"What title could be as grand as my brother is?" Shareef wanted to know. "King? Emperor? Prince? None of them, even all together, are as Grand as you are, Brother." Shareef told Shibu honestly.

Shareef giggled brightly as he saw his brothers cheeks turn a gentle tone of strawberry red.

"My title is just Guardian, Shareef." Shibu said modestly. "Bonta has a king, and a good one. And I'll be sure that you meet him, much sooner than later." Shibu responded.

"From now on, I want to be with you all the time, big brother." Shareef told Shibu while running his fingers through Shibu's beautiful mane of ink black hair. "I want to be an Eliotrope, like you. I want to dress the same way, and have my own colors, just like these wonderful silks of yours." Shareef confessed quietly.

"Now that you know who you are, you have the right to make those choices, my brother." Shibu answered, kissing his brother tenderly on the cheek. "Everything I have is yours. All the money that I've made from potion making and selling is yours for the asking. There's nothing in the entire world you cannot have if I can afford it." Shibu answered. "You're my brother. You're not one half of what I am, you are the whole of what I am, and I can't give myself any more than I would freely give to you." Shibu confirmed. The words came along with a firm and loving embrace, into which Shareef flowed, becoming little more under Shibu's hands than a warm puddle of water.

"I have so much to tell you, and so much more to show you that will teach you more than I ever could." Shibu told Shareef. "As soon as you're well enough, you're going to meet not only his Majesty the King, but you're going to meet someone just as special, and to you, like he is to me, someone just as important." Shibu said.

Shareef paused a moment, wrinkling his nose in a curious expression. "Who could be more important than a king, other than my brother, of course?" Shareef wanted to know.

"His name is Master Chang, and he is my teacher, and the Sage to the court of Bonta. He can tell you and show you more about being an Eliotrope in one hour, then I could in a month." Shibu explained gently. "But for now, we're still both recovering, and we need to rest more than anything." Shibu advised. "Eliotropes are quite strong, as you've probably learned." Shibu continued. "But we're not superhuman. We need rest, food, and fun as much as any of the other peoples in Bonta and everywhere else."

This pearl of wisdom made Shareef smile. "As long as I can stay this close to you, my handsome brother, there is nothing more that I need for now, or for the near future." Shareef finished his reply with a broad yawn which he did his best to hide from Shibu, who smiled back at his brother warmly. 

"Sleep here with me if you will, Shareef. I want nothing more in all of Bonta then to be as close to you as you wish to be to me." Shibu punctuated his wish by reaching over, and gently kissing Shareef right in the middle of his handsome olive skinned forehead. "Sleep now my brother, and grow strong. For tomorrow, and all of the tomorrows that follow are our prizes,each new day to make up for one in the past lost to us because we were not together."

"I love you, Shibu." Shareef whispered gently as he slid off into a relaxed slumber, surrounded by a soft blue light, emanating placidly from an admiring Shibu.

Shibu's reply was made of the most beautiful words that he could manage to speak, and the words upon which his own world would turn from this moment forward.

"I love you too, Shareef." Shibu whispered as he lay down beside Shareef, both of them forming a gentle blue sphere with a single bed as its base.

Felicity's concentration on her medical reports was broken by a sudden loud and more than slightly obnoxious growling sound from one of the nearby beds.

"What manner of torture device is this?" A stern mail voice practically bellowed, completely shattering the quiet of the hospital within the keep.

Felicity fluttered up and away from the desk in a moment, her normally attractive face a mask of annoyance. In a moment she fluttered over one set of particular curtain rods which separated this particular emergency treatment bed from all of the others.

"And what manner of man bellows like a drunken beast in the middle of a tavern, rather than keeping quiet like a wounded man in the hospital?" Felicity answered as she hovered over his bedside, being careful to stay out of his reach as she did so.

"And what might your name be?" The human man asked a bit more softly.

"My name might be Aloysius." Felicity snapped back in a sassy tone. "But well behaved patients call me Felicity. You, on the other hand, may address me as "nurse." The Enripsa healer said in a voice filled with temper, and the tone of stern reprimand.

"So this port of call is the hospital, is it now, nurse?" The man spoke up in an equally feisty tone, but this time much closer to a whisper than before.

"Aye, Captain Soams." Felicity retorted, snapping even in a whisper toward the cheeky patient who had been securely strapped into his bed. "And in less you've got a mind to get yourself a peg leg, you keep good and still until we have a chance to heal your injuries, Captain." Felicity informed him curtly.

"So you know me, do you Missy?" Soames replied. "And just how would that be, Madame nurse?" Soames said, this time with a cold edge on his whisper.

"Our rescue crews brought you in after your ship ran aground, for your general information. We found your name in the clothing we were forced to remove while treating your injuries." Felicity explained quietly, in a huffy tone she usually reserved for someone else who could be just as obstinate and hard to deal with.

"Hold there, Lass!" Captain Soames said quickly. "What know you of my vessel and my crew?"

"Our rescue boats brought in nearly thirty poor souls from that ship that was torn apart on Dragon Tooth Shoals. Most of them went to another hospital nearby. You were brought here because  
your injuries needed immediate treatment." Felicity explained calmly.

Soames, who had been propped up on his elbows as he lay in bed dropped back down onto the mattress, but the soft bed, and softer pillow gave him no comfort this time.  
Felicity couldn't help but notice the dazed look in the man's eyes as he lay back down again and was quiet.

"And just how long will it be before I can set sail from this place again?" Soames asked as much to the sky over his bed then to the nurse standing beside it.

"You're in the emergency ward of Bonta Castle, Captain Soames." Felicity began by way of explanation intended to soften the blow that had caused the man before her to literally shrivel before her eyes. 

"The best healers in the entire Kingdom are here all together. We should have you up and walking again in a few days. But if you injure that leg any more, they'll be nothing anyone can do to save it. So we have to keep you as still as you possibly can be." Felicity explained as much of the situation as the patient had a right to know.

Soames only gesture of thanks was a brief nod of his head and a waving motion of his fingers that shooed Felicity away from his bedside.

"Wait, miss nurse!" Soames called after her as Felicity began to rise away from his bedside.

"What now, Captain Soames?" Felicity asked petulantly.

"Would you or anyone else here have seen the like of a young man of pure white hair, and olive skin among those who were rescued?" Soames asked repentant in his tone.

"Why yes, one of the survivors did match that description." Felicity replied unable to hide her surprise.

"What do you mean "did match"?" Soames wanted to know quickly.

"Shareef's injuries were so minor that he was treated and released, almost two days ago." Felicity replied. "Was he a member of your crew, just for our records, you understand. So we can keep you all grouped together in the same file." Felicity explained patiently.

"Aye, Lass, that he is." Captain Soames responded. "And no better than he there was among my good crew."

"I'll make a note of it." Felicity replied. "And if you promise to be good, and mostly be still, I might be persuaded to let Shareef know that you've asked about him."

"I'll give you my affidavit, that I'll layup like a ship in dry dock if you could do as much for an old seafaring man." Soames answered quickly.

"That's good enough for me." Felicity replied. "Lunch will be here in a few minutes, and one of the ways you get back onto a quarter deck is to eat as best you can." Felicity told him, much more gently this time, since Soames was apparently acquainted with Shareef.

Before Soames could make any reply, Felicity fluttered back up and over the curtain rods, and was headed for her desk to get a message to Shibu and Shareef.

“Shibu?" Shareef asked softly, testing to see if his brother was really asleep.

"Still here, handsome. But so comfortable next to you it won't be long before we're both asleep."

"There's something else I want, Shibu. Besides your being happy, that is."

Shibu smiled at his brother, and Shareef's heart became as soft as warm candle wax once again. "And what might that be, my handsome brother?" Shibu asked gently.

"I want a set of horns, just like yours." Shareef confessed in a secretive whisper even though Shibu was no more than the span of a hand from his brother. "Is that possible?" Shareef wanted to know.

"I'm not entirely sure right now, Shareef." Shibu responded truthfully. "But I do know one thing. Eliotropes are a magical and surprising people. I doubt that there is much of anything they could not do if they put their minds to it." Shibu responded with a half yawn as he finished.

"Brother?" Shareef asked gently once more." May I feel your horns again?"

"Feel freely, brother Shareef." Shibu replied lowering his head just a bit, to bring the top of his own head within Shareef's easy touch.

"They are as much a part of me as you are, and everything I am is yours for the asking." Shibu added.

"They're so handsome, so strong, and so gently warm to the touch." Shareef observed as he ran the palms of his hands over 1st the inside curves and then the outside lines of the sleek obsidian spires that seemed a natural extension of Shibu's gentle strength.

"It's your touch that's so sweet and gentle, brother Shareef. Even the rough spots on a sailor's hands feel to me like satin, velvet, and silk. Just as long as the hands are yours." Shibu replied with another gentle smile, matched by a sweet kiss planted on his brothers olive cheek.

Shareef's touch was filled with a warm energy that soothed Shibu from the tips of his horns down to the tips of his toes. It seemed to him that he was in a never ending flow of perfectly warm and gentle water, that seem to rush over him like a waterfall. The sensation replaced the stinging sheets of rain that were pounded home like rivets during the storm. It was such a deep and relaxing feeling that it slowly stole Shibu's breath away, as Shareef demonstrated some of the skills he possessed.

"Shareef?" Shibu whispered. "You have the touch of the healer about you. The only time I've felt anything like it was from my mom, after I fell out of that tree." Shibu told Shareef honestly. "Perhaps we have more than one healer in the family now."

Hearing and feeling Shibu's words sent another warm pulse of energy through Shareef. The flow and the harmony of it was enough to wrap Shareef in a blanket a thousand times more comfortable than the one on the bed underneath them. It was also enough to allow Shareef to drop off toward sleep wrapped not only in the mystical energy, but in Shibu's arms as well.

“Shareef?” Shibu whispered quietly as he lay close to his brother.

“Yes, my Handsome Bronze Sea Dragon?” Shareef whispered in return.

“There is one more thing you must know.”

“Speak, Shaqiq.”

“The aspects of my nature, and the skills of the Eliotrope people are unknown to any in Bonta, save our own Family, and the Sage Master Chang. They are kept for the time being as family secrets.” Shibu told Shareef gently.

“It is well, Shaqiq.” Shareef replied, snuggling into Shibu as close as his own skin would allow. “People would not understand, and with intoxicating ignorance flows the poison of fear.” Shareef answered, his mind still active as his body slid toward sleep.

“I love you, Shareef.” Shibu whispered gently, as he kissed Shareef on the forehead, and then gave himself over to the most contented sleep he had ever known, as the brace of brothers slept wrapped in a mutual embrace, each finally complete within the others warm heart.


	14. Fair Breezes

Early the next morning, Shibu and Shareef found themselves curled together under the green wool blanket on the bed. Both were awake at the same time, and for the same reason.

Everywhere within their hearing was quiet!

The two Eliotropes exchanged surprised glances. "The storm's over!" 

Each said to the other at the same time. Then both fell silent again for a moment, testing to see whether or not it was true. It had been four days and three nights since the castle or the city below it had known this kind of serene quiet. The sky no longer shook with thunder, nor did the white stones of the castle or her towers vibrate gently beneath their feet as both hopped off the bed together.

"It's true!" Shibu said with overwhelming happiness and relief to his brother. "It's finally over!"

Shareef hugged Shibu close and held him as he turned a sailor's ear to the sounds of nature and the weather beyond the tall white stone tower.

"Oh Shibu!" Shareef said quietly. "I can hear the sound of the wind. Not the howling beast of the storm wind, but the softer sea breeze." Shareef continued with a smile nearly as bright as his own green eyes. "Is there an observation deck at the top of the tower?" Shareef wanted to know as he let go of Shibu long enough to allow his brother to put on his familiar hat once again, while Shareef put on his familiar white head wrap once more.

"You are a sharp one, brother mine." Shibu replied as he put on his hat again and arranged it comfortably." There is indeed a top deck. Master Chung and I use it every night to look at the stars, while he teaches me astronomy and astrology."

"Oh Shibu, let's go up top, please?" Shareef asked urgently. "I need to feel the calm breeze off the sea. That way I'll know that the storm is really over." Shareef explained.

"I think I'm going to enjoy having a sailor in the family as well as a healer." Shibu answered, pausing to hug his brother close in celebration of the storm's passing. "As you wish, Captain Shareef, up to the crow's nest we go!" Shibu said with a bright smile.

Shareef paused, and swept the green blanket off of the bed. He quickly folded himself a green loincloth over his hips to preserve his modesty. After all, there might be a slight chill on the sea breeze.

“Shibu?” Shareef called after his brother. But it was too late! Shibu was headed for the top of the tower, clad only in his familiar hat!

The unexpected promotion as well as the formal title made Shareef chuckle as Shibu pointed out a small, narrow staircase that seem to be wound into one corner of what was the bedroom. Shibu led the way, and the two brothers set out on a long, serpentine trip that took them higher with every step.

After what seemed like far more than four flights of the circular staircase, the two of them arrived in a small room which had only 2 distinct features. A pointed roof, and a heavy dark wooden door, one that Shareef instantly recognized as being made from teakwood, the same heavy resilient wood that he was used to walking upon each and every day. The stout door opened with a slow twist of a heavy iron ring. This required Shibu's more practiced extra strength to turn, and the door before the two of them unlatched as if by magic, creating what seemed a doorway no larger than a rabbit hole which led to the deck built around the top most part of the tower.

Instantly, the two of them threatened to be overtaken by the freshening breeze which seemed to rebound off of the rocks, around the tower with greater speed, and then back out toward the sea.

Shareef caught the freshening breeze like an old friend, and took hold of the handrail around the observation deck, turning his body so it could receive the full force of the breeze across his face and body. Shibu smiled as he watched, for he had never seen such an angelic look upon anyone's face before as came over Shareef's countenance as he felt the touch of the familiar sea breeze.

"Oh Shibu! This feels so good!" Come over here, stand with me, and face into the wind." Shareef encouraged gently. "I promise you never felt anything so good!"

Shibu nodded, stepping willingly over toward Shareef, and positioning himself in front of his brother before Shibu turned to match his brothers pose as both of them took hold of the guard rail, and held on tight!

Shibu had always loved the wind. It was not only one of the Ranger's best tools, but for Shibu, it marked a special kinship for him with the sky, the bright stars, and the gentle touch of all things natural which seemed to flow so comfortably around him.

Then, he felt Shareef's slightly rougher hands take his own hands away from the guard rail, and turned Shibu ever so slightly, spreading his arms out wide where he stood so that the playful wind dancing off of the rocks of the cliff and the white stone of the tower could blow directly across Shibu's face, and it seemed over and thru his sleek bronze body, as he stood naked before the wind.

"This is the flow of the sea breeze, my brother." Shareef whispered to Shibu as the rising breeze blew through his thick black hair, nipped lightly at his nose, and seemed to kiss his cheeks as tenderly as Felice would, if she were there with them now.

"We know it as the sailor's friend, because when we work in harmony with her, she will take us wherever we wish to go, across the entire world." Shareef told Shibu.

"This breeze is your breeze as well as mine, brother. The first we have shared together, and one that we will always have for ourselves." Shareef concluded, as he paused to kiss Shibu gently on one wind freshened cheek. "Feel it Shibu, take it in. It's a part of the strength that I feel in you simply by your touch. Like the waves, the wind has power that is mostly hidden away, unless one knows how to look, and where to see it." Shareef told him.

Shibu could barely speak, between Shareef's gentle touch, and his sage words, Shibu's heart was racing as he felt his lungs fill with a pure clean breeze tumbling over both of them directly off of the calm seas.

"There is nothing in the world like this breeze, Shibu. And nothing in this world more gentle and more powerful than you are, in my eyes." 

Shareef whispered gently as he let go of Shibu's hands. Shareef placed them back gently but securely on the guard rail, and then wrapped himself around Shibu in a warm hug that took just the right hint of the cold away from the freshening breeze that had brought them both together.

Shibu had never felt anything like this. All trace of fatigue seemed to be blown away on the wind, and as he opened himself to the sensation and gentle strength of the breeze, it seemed to become part of his own strength as well, in the same moment. He was not only refreshed, but restored to a strength and vigor that seemed to flow around and through him like the wind itself.

"Shareef, you are truly amazing." Shibu complemented him with heartfelt words.

"I said I could teach you things as well." Shareef replied. "It's when we learn from each other that the lessons are most vivid and lasting."

"The new arrival speaks with wisdom well beyond his years, Bravo young one." Intoned a slightly gruff voice from behind the pair as Shareef and Shibu stood at the rail just letting the refreshing breeze tumble over them, bringing endlessly welcome refreshment.  
Shareef started slightly at the site of the tall, thin, gray and black robed figure who had joined them in complete silence at the rail.

For just a moment, Shibu could sense fear and uncertainty from Shareef. But Shibu's voice was calm, gentle, and even as he made the introductions.

"Master Chang, Sage to the Royal Court of Bonta, meet Shareef, my Eliotrope brother, and stranger to this land, brought to us upon a stormy sea." Shibu seem to recite by way of introduction.

"Welcome, little brother." Master Chang responded in a courtly voice and manner, and with the bow that was both flowing an impressive to both Shibu and Shareef. "You come to us as a castaway, but it is you who have rescued Shibu, from an island of solitude and loneliness." The master Sage observed quietly, but with a note of distinct gratitude in his profoundly deep voice.

Shareef turned, and bowed in his own stately manner, dropping smoothly to one knee in the presence of the venerable Sage.

"Thank you, Master, for your wisdom and your secours." Shareef responded formally. "I was made homeless, and the wonderful Sea Dragon came along, plucked me up, and took me in as a friend, and as a brother." Shareef added, bringing Shibu into the conversation with the astronomy and astrology his brother had mentioned.

Shareef's artful but fitting words brought looks of admiration from both the silver eyed Sage, and from Shibu who stood by, his blue eyes glowing with genuine pride as he looked over at Shareef.

As Shibu looked at Shareef, the black haired Eliotrope suddenly remembered his state of complete undress!

Shibu's slight finger movement opened a portal, and Shibu dove merrily into the blue circle of light, vanishing completely for just a moment!

Before Shareef could manage to react, Shibu sprang out of the opening made of blue light. He landed beside Shareef. Shibu was now wearing his handsome red and silver silks, as if his momentary nudity had been nothing more than an illusion for Shareef's gentle green eyes.

As Shibu and Shareef stood on the observation deck, the sound of the sea breeze eddying across the stones of the cliff face was filled with another familiar sound. It was one that Shibu did not have to work to recognize.

Master Chang's tall pointed ears also moved toward the unexpected sound. The Sage of Bonta smiled gently at the two brothers, “It seems you two have a caller arriving for a visit.” The sage told both Shibu and Shareef.”Enjoy your well-earned refreshment, and I shall see both of you at Tonight's celebrations.”

Shareef started to reply, but between the moment he thought about what to say, and the moment the words got to his tongue, Master Chang was gone from sight, as if he had been nothing more than a mirage, conjured up by the gentle sunlight and the freshening breeze at the top of the tower.

"Felicity?" Said Shibu quietly to himself as he and Shareef stood beside each other once more.

Sure enough, a moment later, a familiar winged figure seemed to Bob up over the edge of the observation deck, rising and falling as she appeared, as if she was caught on a sine wave of wind.

Shareef's reaction and reflex came as naturally to him as rope climbing, as he hopped up onto the guard rail itself, took Felicity gently around the waist, and held her close as he hopped back down, landing on the observation deck as if he had taken no more than a single step up and forward.

"Welcome, my pretty healer." Shareef said to her as he set her down gently on her feet again. "A Fine sea breeze brings with it many wonderful prizes this day." Shareef told her with a smile that quickly reduced Felicity's heart to the consistency of syrup.

"Why thank you, Shareef." Felicity replied, her words divided in her throat by the strong thumping of the heart in her chest. "It's so wonderful to know that I have at least one patient who knows how to treat a lady." She told Shareef with a coy smile. But then, Felicity paused, to turn a set of decidedly less than sympathetic eyes on Shibu. "Unlike some I could mention, but they're not worthy of it." Felicity continued, looking back at Shareef with eyes as soft and sympathetic as her own healing touch.

"What brings you up here, Felicity?" Shibu asked, his manner unchanged in spite of Felicity's harsh outlook toward him.

"As it happens, I have a message for both Shareef, and one for you." Felicity replied, turning up her nose slightly in Shibu's direction. "Gentlemen first." Felicity snapped. 

And then she turned gentle and rare eyes back to Shareef.

"I'm here to deliver two messages." Felicity explained gently. "Yours is from a certain Captain Soames, who's a patient in the castle keep hospital."

Felicity saw Shareef's bright green eyes sparkle, as if someone had lit two great warning fires in his gentle eyes. By the time he could reply, Shareef was visibly shaken, and was in fact shaking all over as he attempted to speak.

S-S-Soames?” Shareef stammered with a hiss that made him sound altogether different from his usual controlled demeanor. "Captain Soames?" Shareef forced himself to hiss the name through teeth set in a jaw that was shaking as badly as the rest of Shareef's body.

"Yes." Felicity replied softly, seeing and feeling a sudden need to soothe Shareef's excitement. "He said that he was Master of the ship that you sailed on." Felicity told him, keeping her words gentle as she took his rougher, and shaking hands into her own.

"He's—Alive?" Shareef stuttered weakly.

Felicity looked at Shareef, her expression a mixture of confusion and surprise. "Why of course he is, silly. I'll have you know that deceased patients don't send messages from my hospital, thank you very much!"

"Shareef?" A familiar and steady voice cut into the conversation. "Is that the man you asked me about on the Shoals when we first met?"

Shareef was suddenly unable to speak, as a general tremor overtook his whole body. But he did manage to nod definitely at both Shibu and Felicity.

"Felicity, that's wonderful news!" Shibu interjected. "But if we don't get Shareef calmed down, I think he could wind up having a relapse." Shibu observed, not altogether jesting in his observation.

Shibu reached out, and gently took Shareef by his broad shoulders, working gently to hold him still as his hands came to rest. "Easy, brother." Shibu advised quietly. "If we're going to go and meet your Captain, you can't let him see you like this." Shibu continued. "What would he think of the both of us?" Shibu asked sensibly as Shareef's trembling slowly subsided beneath Shibu's hands.

"We've got to get you--" Felicity started to say, and then paused for a moment searching for words.

"Ship shape?" Shibu filled in.

"That's it!" Felicity chirped brightly. "Well, maybe Shibu is good for something after all." Felicity teased cruelly.  
But Shibu seem to ignore Felicity's catty attack, and focused his attention on Shareef.

"Come on brother, we've got to get you looking and feeling your best." Shibu advised. "How would you like to borrow my extra set of silks for the occasion?" Shibu asked him.

"Of course, that will mean that were both wearing the same thing, if you don't mind, that is." Shibu remarked casually.

"I would rather wear your silks then I would an admiral's greatcoat, brother Shibu." Shareef said as he managed to collect his thoughts and speak normally again.

Shibu nodded, his smile as nearly as bright as the one he saw on Shareef's face.

"Then we'd better get downstairs, as quick as we can." Shibu replied quickly. "Felicity, would you excuse us for a while, while we two boys get ready for a formal visit?" Shibu asked the opinionated Enripsa healer.

"For Shareef's sake, and not for yours, Mister red silks." Felicity replied in a tone that mixed a trace of snobbery along with sympathy aimed at the two brothers.

“Oh, Wait!” Felicity said suddenly. “I have a message for you, too, Mister Black Hair.”

Shibu stopped and turned where he stood to face Felicity.

“Your mother wants to see you.” Felicity said, almost too casually. But her words came with an odd half smile, as she teased Shibu relentlessly.

Shibu looked away from the Enripsa, and toward his brother.

“Ok, we'll have to split up for now, Shareef.” You know where my silks are hanging?' Shibu asked.

“Yes,Shibu.” Shareef shot back, as quick as a cannonball. “For now, I'll have to wash out my Keffiyeh.” Shareef reflected.

“That's all right, Brother. You make anything you wear look good, even bare skin!”

Only then did Shareef glance down and realize that he was wearing nothing more than a hastily folded loincloth! 

Shibu giggled brightly as Shareef's white hair accented a soft blush of rosy pink on Shareef's olive cheeks!

“What must she think of me, Brother?” Shareef asked, just a touch breathless.”

“About Felicity, I'm never quite sure.” Shibu replied honestly. But Shibu took a step closer to Shareef and whispered gently. “But I think you look fine.” Shibu kissed Shareef softly on his rosy cheek, gently whisking away his brother's modest sign of embarrassment.

Shareef blushed even more deeply, also casting a gentle Gobball-eyed  
look toward Felicity, who hadn't seemed to notice much of anything out of the ordinary.

From just behind his shoulder, Shibu heard Felicity whisper a single word, tinged with a knowing frustration.

“Boys!” was all she could manage to say this time, thru a dense layer of her own exasperation. 

“For the record, Shareef, you look absolutely gorgeous.” Felicity retorted quickly. “And don't worry, that's one observation that's not going into your medical file.” She added with a sly wink in Shareef's direction. “Maybe you could escort me to the celebrations tonight, and then allow me to give you a more complete examination over a late supper or early breakfast, at my place.” Felicity offered.

Shareef was blindsided. The look on his face made Shibu double over with laughter that brought him a case of the hiccups!

Felicity growled out loud, casting dagger eyes at Shibu, before stepping between the two boys to take her place next to Shareef.

Felicity's reaction was to take Shareef's hand, in a surprisingly strong grip, and hold it firmly, as Shibu rolled around nearly helpless on the white stone deck in front of both of them!

Shareef himself was lost for words, and only after Shibu managed a nod in the midst of his convulsing laughter did Shareef brighten and nod in turn to Felicity.

Felicity found herself so excited that her gentle kiss on Shareef's cheek weakened her knees, rather than his!

“Hay, Mister Popularity!” Felicity snapped at Shibu with a look that threatened to melt more of the white stone floor than any bolt of lightning. She tapped the fallen Shibu with a stub of her toes, “Your mother wants you, little one!” Felicity growled again, as she led Shareef away and thru the door of the observation deck by the hand to make sure he was properly dressed for his hospital visit.

Shibu rolled over, slowly drawing in a deep breath while he wiped the tears from his eyes.

Shareef's education in Bontarian culture has begun! Thought Shibu to himself, as the call from his mother crossed his mind and his heart at the same time.

Shareef's body looks like he could pit fight wild boar for a living. Shibu reminded himself. Maybe Felicity has finally met her match! Shibu thought with a smile as he opened a portal directly to Felice, and dove into it with a sprightly laugh!


	15. Relief

Shibu's personal portal moved him to a small room just off of the massive vaulted ceiling room that was the hospital and shelter in the castle keep.

He popped up out of the portal, and almost before his feet could touch the floor again, Shibu felt a familiar set of arms wrap around him. Their touch was close, gentle and loving. Shibu reciprocated by reflex alone, even before he heard his favorite voice whisper to him "Hello dearest boy!"

Shibu relaxed completely and snuggled softly into the warm security of Felice's embrace.

"Mom!" Was all Shibu needed to say, or wanted to say as she held him close.

"Four days and three nights without my boy." Felice sighed in happy relief. 

"As soon as I saw the storm clouds and the lightning, I was worried for you, Shibu." Felice confessed in a quiet whisper that seem to take the weight of the World of the Twelve from her shoulders.

"I guess we've both been pretty busy, Mom." Shibu replied casually as the two of them separated, and Felice swept her experienced eyes over Shibu from the top of his hat to the tips of his toes, looking for even the smallest flaw or defect in Shibu.  
She smiled broadly as she found nothing but Shibu's loving and radiant blue eyes waiting to take her into another hug.

"I've missed you too, Mom." Shibu replied, not quite knowing what to say, and feeling slightly apologetic that there was nothing Bonta's best healer could do for him.

"But so much has happened, Mom. I've got so much to tell you!" Shibu interjected, still keeping his voice down, in spite of the fact the small room in which the pair found themselves was an office, rather than a patient space.

"So I've heard, sweetheart. It seems our dark-haired Sea Dragon is Bonta's hero all over again." Felice exclaimed, her own eyes overflowing with both the light of pride, and gentle tears as she looked at Shibu.

"Aw, Mom." Shibu replied modestly. "I had a lot of help, and I didn't do so very much." Shibu protested modestly. "Just ask Cici what happened. She and the boat crew worked way harder than I did."

"And just who do you suppose told me what happened?" Felice replied, her pride in Shibu doubling at his usual modesty. "The story of what you did on Dragon Tooth Shoals is all over the city. People in the inn are already singing about it." Felice informed her son gently. 

"But you know who's even prouder of you than Cici and I?" Felice asked quietly. "King Louis came to see us both, and I've never seen him look better or prouder of the whole kingdom, then when he told us what he had heard about what you did." Felice told Shibu.

The King says that you deserve more than a knighthood, and he said he might come up with something special just for you!" Felice went on. "For now, my handsome son is the hero of all Bonta, and I for one don't intend to let that pass so quickly." Felice concluded, as she took Shibu gently by the shoulders, kissed him gently on each cheek, and then she paused so that the two of them could rub noses softly, sharing a smile and a memory that went back to Shibu's earliest days.

"You know that King Louis decreed celebrations for tonight, don't you dear?" Felice asked, as her natural energy returned, and her short wings took her around the room as if she was riding a cloud.

"Master Chung did say something about it." Shibu replied almost dismissively. "But I understand how people need to get rid of their worry." Shibu observed. "Because starting tomorrow, there will be loads of work to do, repairing Bonta, and getting the city back to normal after the storm."

Felice nodded, still smiling and floating on air in front of Shibu. "You're probably right, dear." Felice replied. I haven't been out of the keep myself yet, but I've heard people talking about damage to homes and property all over the city." Felice explained.

Felice saw a new light of resolution sparkle into Shibu's clear blue eyes. "Then we'll need every spare hand we can get. And I want to be there too, mom."

"Oh don't you worry about that, Shibu dear." Felice answered. "King Louis has already told me that he plans to lead the major work gang to go through the city, clearing streets, and taking care of fallen trees and stone, so that people can get around the city again."

"If the King, and the royal guards are there, we can do anything, mom. Just you wait and watch!" Shibu replied enthusiastically.

"That's my boy!" Felice said as a renewed wave of pride threatened to make her heart itself burst.

"But Shibu?" Felice asked after a moment or two. "Aren't you forgetting someone?" Felice asked her son gently.

"I'm sure Cici will be there too, mom." Shibu replied immediately. "We'll need good archers to shoot guide wires to anchor some of the trees, until the woodsman can take over. I hope we didn't lose too many of them. They're all old trees, and so beautiful." Shibu replied.

"No dear, not Cici." Felice replied. "It seems I've heard something about another Eliotrope in Bonta." Felice inquired with a gentle nudge.

Shibu looked both dazed and happy for a moment, and his expression made his mother laugh right out loud!

"So when does Mom get to meet the newest member of our family, Sir Shibu?"

Just the thought of Shareef meeting Felice was enough to weaken Shibu's knees, and his mother put a chair under him so her son didn't wind up on the floor as another potential patient.

"Are you all right, dearest?" Felice asked gently but urgently.

"Mom, you're just as amazing as Shareef is." Shibu replied, trying to pull his thoughts together for a moment. "I've been trying to figure out exactly how I was going to tell you, and what I needed to ask, to get your permission." Shibu stammered, his thoughts becoming an emotional wreck for just a moment, as his wonderful mother completely and absolutely surprised him.

"Oh my sweetest darling!" Felice replied, kissing Shibu gently on his nose once more. "You are my son, and anyone you consider as a brother, is just as much my child as you always have been, and always will be." Felice told him in gentle and loving words that brought tears to her son's radiant and gentle blue eyes.

"Oh, mom! I love you so much!" Shibu said as he sprang up from the chair, and folded himself into his mother's arms, tears of joy streaming like a river down his bronze cheeks.

Felice took Shibu into her arms and held him close, not just to make up for the days and nights just passed in the teeth of the storm.  
Shibu wept, and Felice used the soft tail of Shibu's hat to wipe away her boys tears.

"Oh Shibu!" Felice whispered to him as her own tears mixed freely with those of her son. "My sweet Sea Dragon. Our home has always been as open as your own heart, and now that there's more than one Eliotrope in the world of the twelve, where else could he be, except with his brother, who is also my glorious, handsome son?" Felice asked quietly, as Shibu wept so deeply with joy that he shook both his mother and himself as they held one another.

"Thank you, mom." Was all that Shibu could manage to say in a near silent whisper. But they were the only words that Felice needed or wanted to hear from her boy.

Felice gently swept warm and energetic healing hands across Shibu's back, as she set him down and onto his own feet once again.  
"So when do you bring your brother home to meet his foster mother?" Felice asked expectantly.

"Oh mom, I just know Shareef will love you as much as I do!" Shibu interjected. "I can't wait till the four of us are altogether!"

"Well, what about right now?" Felice wanted to know.

“Shareef and I got separated." Shibu explained, slowing down a bit and regaining command of his feelings. "He had a message to come visit someone here in the hospital." Shibu explained quietly and slowly to Felice.

"Well, we've had most of the people who were sheltered here during the storm leaving because they wanted to see how badly damaged their homes might be." Felice explained. "The only medical patients left are the emergency cases who couldn't manage to walk out on their own." Felice added. "Do you remember the name of the person Shareef wanted to visit, Shibu?"

Shibu remembered vividly, and it showed in the deep blue light which illuminated his gentle eyes.

"Soames, mother." Shibu said almost at once. "Captain Soames." Shibu added. "Shareef was one of the crew who sailed on the ship that broke up on Dragon Tooth Shoals."

Shibu was surprised a moment later, to see his mother's expression change at the mention of the name, and the title.

"Oh dear!" Felice said, inhaling softly as she spoke. "We'd better find Shareef, as quickly as we can." Felice said flatly to Shibu.

"Why mom?" Shibu asked with the rising note of urgency. "What's the matter?" Shibu asked in return.

"I think poor Shareef might be in for a hard time, sweetness." Felice explained in a gently comforting whisper. "You see dear, Captain Soames is in a very bad way. If we can't heal him, he's going to lose a leg, and as weak as he is, we may lose him altogether." Felice explained quietly, and using the voice that went with her work as a healer.

Shibu gasped, pulling in a short breath, as he also took in the image of Shareef losing one family member, even while he gained others. 

"Poor Shareef!" Was all Shibu could manage to say through a breath that seemed unusually cold to him.

"Mom, he's lost the only home he's ever known, until we met." Shibu began slowly. "The crew and the captain of his ship were his family, and in a way, I can understand how he would still think of them the same way." Shibu reflected soberly.

Felice slowly took in all that Shibu had told him, and Felicity's encounter with the captain suddenly made perfect sense to Felice as well.

"Shibu, dear. I need you to go find Felicity. I think she may still be at the nursing station, but I want you to bring her back here first before we go looking for Shareef and Captain Soames."

Shibu was up and out of the chair, again, and already casting a portal before he had drawn another full breath.

"No, Shibu!" Felice warned suddenly. "Not here dear, not yet anyway. Just walk, as quickly as a Ranger can." Felice advised him gently but firmly.

Shibu reflected for a moment, moved his index finger ever so slightly, and the familiar circle of blue light vanished as easily as it had seemed to come from nowhere at all.

"Okay mom!" Shibu exclaimed. "I'll be back with Felicity even if I have to carry her across my shoulders to get her here." Shibu said with renewed determination as he walked toward the door of the office.

"Be careful, my sweet Sea Dragon!" Felice called after him gently. "Felicity just might enjoy that a bit too much!"

His mother's canny observation made Shibu giggle, restoring the good feeling that had so filled their reunion. But Shibu also knew Felice. His mother was a master at using good humor to defuse tension, and anything that might become a bad situation.

As Shibu opened up the office door, and plunged out into the milling crowd of people trying to escape the shelter of the keep to return home, he knew that finding Felicity, and then Shareef might be the only way to cushion the awful blow which seemed to be headed directly at Shareef.

Shibu needed exactly two steps before he was striding across the huge room that had once been a combination shelter and hospital. Small groups of people now jammed the room in the same way as apis floated in a barrel of water. Most of them were not medical patients. These were the many citizens of the city and the kingdom that had taken shelter from the storm inside Bonta Castle once the storm had loosed its full fury upon the White City.

But now the storm was over and hundreds of worried citizens turned their attention to their regular homes once again.

Some of the citizens had checked luggage and other valuables brought with them from their homes into the safety of the castle keep. As a result, there was a great swirling ring of people milling around the one or two desks which had been hastily erected when the influx began.

The second and more substantial of these was the nurse's station, where the Enripsa staff had established a rotation for admitting those who needed medical care into the hospital which the King had ordered established at the heart of the castle keep. Now, four days later, the task of discharging almost a third of the population from the combination shelter and hospital made for a spectacular crush and flow of people more common to the great Plaza below the hill crowned by the white castle.

The ebb and flow of the huge crowd around the two desks seemed to create another storm center, just as dense, and with the ability to draw people in like the sweeping winds of a tornado! Almost before he knew it, Shibu was surrounded on all sides, boxed in and then slowly squeezed by the milling crush of people around him. Even his Ranger training had not prepared him for anything like this, and he was soon like anyone else in the crowd, trying to avoid walking into other people, while trying to make headway toward a specific goal as the crowd, and its own energy moved him more easily and frequently than his own footsteps.

Shibu's situation wasn't helped as a substantial number of the crowd began to recognize him, as the press of the crowd continued to push people together. Most of the people were average Bontarians, which meant that even amid the oppressive crush of people, most of them were polite, if not necessarily helpful in the situation.  
Shibu began to hear whispers of his own name ripple across the crowds of people. These whispers, carried from citizen to citizen became raised voices, some of them echoing to the very corners of the vast room, and off of the high vaulted ceiling of the castle keep itself.

Shibu watched in complete amazement, as simply the sound of his name brought 1st tens, and then hundreds of people to a dead stop, wherever they stood, or whatever they were doing. Shibu's problem was that simple courtesy required in the situation now became a heavy chain that bound him as much as the press of the crowd!  
With the people packed in too closely to bow to him, many simply doffed their hats, or gave Shibu a friendly and bright-eyed nod, as the vast majority of them had never seen a celebrity before, let alone a hero of Bonta.

Shibu was daunted for a moment, because his own nature, and the courtly manners he had learned would not allow any friendly gesture to go unacknowledged. Shibu began nodding in returned to people, and as more and more of them, particularly the young and the children began to reach out for him, Shibu began returning the general greetings, and the familiar handshakes. But it quickly became obvious to him that he wasn't moving anymore, and as more and more people became stationary, the movement of the massing crowd had slowed and finally stopped. But Shibu was pinned into one spot, by the press of the crowd which he himself had gathered.

Not even a Ranger could move surrounded by thick trees, and for just a moment, Shibu wasn't sure how to escape.

But then, an idea flashed across his mind.

"Bontarians!” Shibu called out at the top of his voice.

Instantly, all the other noise of speech and conversation from the vast crowd fell silent. "I need your help." Shibu continued." The days of storm are over, but our work is just beginning. I need to find two people. The first is Felicity, the Enripsa nurse who has taken such grand care of all of you during your stay here." Shibu told the crowd. "There is someone here who needs her help right away. Felicity? Are you here? Shibu called out above the crowds, as individual people in the crowd began to look for her as well.

Suddenly, from the compact mass of the crowds, seemingly tens of yards distant, there came a familiar voice, and with the distinct ripple of people moving within a crowd, a familiar winged figure finally had enough space to take to the air above the crowds, and to be seen by Shibu's sharper eyes as she floated closer to the vaulted ceiling then to the milling crowd below.

Felicity herself wasted not a single beat of her wings. She flew toward Shibu like an arrow loosed from his own bow. In a moment, the people closest to Shibu stood back two steps, allowing Felicity the courtesy of a place to land next to Shibu.

There was now enough room among the crowd for Shibu to extend to them a graceful bow. And as he did so, some of the gathered citizens began to applaud, and even to whistle gently.

Standing next to Shibu, Felicity beamed as bright as the moon, soaking up her chance to be seen with a genuine hero.

"I thank you all." Shibu called again to the crowd. "The second person I seek is a visitor to our land, who looks much like myself. Shareef? Are you here, Brother?” Shibu called out in a steady strong voice that would be a beacon to anyone lost in the vast multitude around him.

"Shareef is here." Felicity whispered to Shibu. "We just lost one another in all this." Felicity explained as quickly as she could.

Before she could say much of anything else, there was another wavelike ripple on the very outside of the crowd, completely across the vast space of the keep from where Shibu and Felicity stood.  
A solitary figure moving in the crowd seemed to create a ripple, like a small stone being skipped across a large pond.

The compacted crowd now understood that they had more room to move, albeit more slowly than before, and as they separated a familiar red and silver hood seemed to bob into view as the ripple of crowd motion parted the sea and made space for one another of their number to move.

In fewer seconds than Shibu could count, Shareef was standing less than two steps away from him, seeming a little ruffled around the silken edges, but showing no major signs of damage.

Shibu and Shareef came together in a hug, and the crowd began to applaud politely once more, accented by a few happy whistles, and the stamping of feet which echoed and reverberated off of the high domed ceiling inside the keep. Amid the happy demonstration, both Shibu and Shareef could hear another word ripple through the crowd which seemed to increase both their understanding and their happiness for a shared moment which every citizen could recognize in their own lives. The word "brother" seem to ripple across the crowd like another stone skipped across the water, and the familiarity of the moment between Shibu and Shareef caught the mood of relief and happiness which was also at the heart of the crowd itself.

Felicity, Shibu, and Shareef quickly linked arms, locking themselves together, so the crowds might not separate them again in a moment.  
But before that moment came, Shibu addressed himself in a happy tone to his fellow Bontarians.

"Thank you everyone!" Shibu said to the milling multitude which had become for him, a momentary forest of people. "I will see you all at the celebrations tonight, and I promise that any of you whom I have not met, will have a chance tonight, and I look forward to seeing you all then. Please be careful leaving here, for as wonderful as this place has been, the Enripsa do not wish to have to treat any more patients this day." Shibu spoke up to better than one third of his fellow citizens, and they greeted his words with another rousing round of applause and short happy whistles which seem to multiply as they all echoed off of the vast vaulted ceiling high above.

Shibu used the cover of the noise to speak to Shareef and Felicity before the trio moved easily through the now stationary crowd of people.

"Felice wants to talk to us before you see Captain Soames, brother Shareef. She also wanted to talk to Felicity at the same time." Shibu explained quickly as he led the trio across the vastness of the white castles largest room at a quick and synchronized step.


	16. Sunrise and Sunset

Between Shibu and Felicity, it took almost no time to sweep Shareef into the office, off to one side, with a solid oak door between the group and the matting crowd. It was Shareef himself who threw both the door bolts, and the floor bolts with a satisfying kick.

"Brother mine!" Shareef said with relief. "I like and admire the people of Bonta, but that crowd could take someone's life, entirely without intending to do anyone any harm!"

Shibu nodded, and clapped his brother solidly across the shoulders  
before sweeping him into a hug that the two of them held for a long moment. Even Felicity was taken into the hug for a moment, and found herself being held by both Shibu and Shareef.

After a moment, the sound of a polite cough elsewhere in the room turned the trio around, with their backs to the door.

Shareef found himself under the gaze of two pairs of eyes. One of them as green as his own, and another light blue, but an entirely different shade from Shibu's unique vision.

"My stars!" Felice exclaimed quietly. "Aren't you the handsomest one in Bonta, alongside my Shibu!"

The sudden and swift approval from Shibu's mother took Shareef to one knee before the pair of figures.

"Indeed and truly, everything brother Shibu has told me of Felice and Cici is as true as the beauty of both of them." Shareef replied humbly. "As Shibu's brother, I am yours until the stars burn away, and we see the last Dawn together." Shareef continued.

"I see we have another reader in the family, and as handsome as he is cultured." Cici responded, dropping to one knee herself to return Shareef's demonstration of veneration. "Unless I'm very wrong in my own readings, and from what I am told, brother Shareef comes from the lands of endless sands, far to the east." Cici told the group.

"It is so!" Shareef said with remarkable surprise shimmering in his own green eyes. "You are the second Bontarian who I know that knows something of my humble beginnings. I applaud your knowledge and understanding." Shareef replied, adding a bow of his head as he spoke.

"Go on and get up, Shareef!" Felice said with jovial informality in her voice. "The only time this family bows to anyone, is to King Louis."

Shareef stood up at once, and Felice was standing as close to him in front as Shibu was standing next to him on one side.

"To the son whom I love and to he who is called Shareef whom I now adopt as his brother. And as my son's brother, you are my child, as he is my child, and forever will be. You are both my sons, now and forever. Welcome to the family, Shareef."

As she finished speaking, Felice used all of the strength she could muster to hug Shareef, close, warm and gently. As she held him close, her hands drifted across his broad back, where her healers experienced hands could feel the deep scars almost chiseled into Shareef's back.

"You're safe, you're warm, and you're well, my handsome, wonderful Shareef. My heart is yours, as it is Shibu's, and by the goddess Enripsa, no one will ever harm you ever again so long as I live. I love you, Shareef, son of mine, and brother to my Shibu." Felice spoke gently aloud as she held Shareef, a true declaration of the Enripsa heart, made before their deity. Felice had made her words not only part of her life from this moment on, but a part of her spirit as well.

Shareef simply melted, to the consistency of soft candle wax, as he had the first time in Shibu's embrace. The tears of joy that flowed down his olive cheeks found no convenient hat tail to dry them this time. Instead, Felice let Shareef weep, understanding that it was as much therapy and relief for him, as it was communal joy for the family.

"I lost my family in the dark of night, so long ago. I have searched for them ever since, praying for a Dawn of light." Shareef responded, his voice breaking as the tears flowed from his eyes.

"This moment is the sunrise for which I have lived all this time. Wherever they are, my parents brought me to this family. My love and devotion to you all are absolute, and from this moment forward, you are my family of light, life, and love." Shareef told Felice, Cici, and Shibu.

Standing in the group, with her back to the door, and watching intently, the only one crying bigger tears then Shareef was Felicity herself.

“Shareef?" A softer voice intoned. "Please me now, new brother, and hear the heart and soul of the Cra, and of the Ranger."

Shareef obeyed, almost by reflex, as if the will and the want to turn and face Cici was as much his own volition as her own.

For the first time, Shareef got a long and deep look into another set of forest green eyes. Cici was nearly six feet tall, with a fall of red hair which seem more like a living lava flow than any natural adornment. She was dressed, as usual, in her formal but functional Ranger's garb, Lincoln green, with accents of brown and black. Both the short pants that she wore, and the short sleeves that gave away to long forearm length gloves which showed off a set of limbs, both arms and legs hardened to a sleek suppleness by a lifetime of living and thinking of nothing but the hunt and the bow. 

Cici was a formidable sight, and before anyone else's eyes, she could be unintentionally intimidating. But as Shareef looked up at her, there was something else entirely in his own green eyes. Not only a light of wonder and grandeur, but a bright light of kinship which shone through to Cici's experienced eyes like a green double star set into the night sky.

"Shareef, my new brother, also called Al Azim, I accept you as my own flesh and blood, and pledge my heart to you as a sister as long as arrows can fly, and the bow can be drawn under the eyes of the goddess Cra." Cici began solemnly. "I take you onto my wings, as the Eagle takes her young, alongside my brother Shibu. I pledge you in the name of the goddess Cra to love you, keep you, and light your path from this moment forward. You are my blood, and I make myself your blood in turn. Nothing will ever separate us again. By Cra, this I swear, before you, before those I love, and all here who bear witness. As from this moment, I have not one brother, but a pair of brothers, who are more dear to me one thousand times than any bow I may draw for all the rest of my days."

Shareef was so moved, that the only motion he could make was to fall on to his knees before Cici, and then reaching up to take her hands into his and hold them firmly as he replied.

“I am yours forever. A brother, A liege heart, and a Ranger to be. You, as all of my family are as much a part of me, as my fingers, my hand, or my arm. And I promise you and pledge you, love, light, loyalty, and honor forever and for always."

After he was done speaking, Shareef rose to his feet once again, and gently but firmly hugged Cici about the shoulders as she knelt before him, so the two could hold one another. Shareef in turn kissed both of Cici's cheeks gently, and whispered one word, one word that made the battle hardened Ranger weep once again as if she was a little girl, drawing puffy clouds.

"Sister." Was all Shareef had to say to reduce Cici to a gently crying puddle of warmth, and joy.

Shareef nodded to Cici, as both of them shared a pool of fine tears, and then Shareef looked with loving and gentle soft eyes toward Felice and Shibu.

Shareef took Felice into a deep, soft and gentle hug, that let the two of them hold one another close and gentle.

"Mother mine." Shareef said to her softly.

Felice began to weep gently also, and as the trio was reduced to a flow of tears together, Shibu was surprised to feel Felicity wrap herself around him, with her head gently upon his broad shoulder.

Shibu's response was more emotion than reflex, as he held Felicity as close and gentle as he might a second sister.

"By all the stars above!" Felicity whispered to him, as the two held one another. "What a family you have, and I wish I could be one part in a hundred as lucky as you are to have them." Felicity let him know in a gentle whisper.

Felicity held onto Shibu, as Bonta's hero in red silks shed tears of happiness also.

"I don't mean to spoil the occasion, Shibu." Felicity whispered to him gently, but I can't deny what's in this room right now, so I'm not going to try." Felicity continued. "Shibu, I love you, I always have, from the first moment I saw you, and I always will, forever and always." Felicity admitted gently to Shibu. "You can take that for what it's worth, but it's the truth of my heart, just as much as the love in this room is the truth in the hearts of others shared between them."

Shibu made no reply, except to kiss Felicity tenderly, on her nose, in keeping with the family tradition. 

"Thank you Felicity." Shibu said at last. "I'm so lucky to have all of you. Not even good King Louis must be as lucky as I am to have a family like all of you."

"And then, there is my brother, he who is called Shibu." Like the Sea Dragon under which he was born, he is my protector, my hope, my love, and my glory." Shareef said looking gently into Shibu's limpid blue eyes. "I love no one anywhere more than he, and it will be so as much as I love my family, for my whole life long."

"I wish I had better news to give my brother on this happiest of all occasions." Shibu replied. "Shareef, we wanted to give you our family, so you would understand that no matter what is to come, you are not alone, and that we can face anything together." Shibu told Shareef in a gentle but firm voice.

"What you must know my dearest one is not easy, but we will not hide the truth from one we love, about one who he cares for." Felice picked up gently.

For Shareef, there was a palpable note of dread in Felice's soft and gentle voice.

"Go ahead mother, hold nothing back. I am ready." Shareef replied,  
taking a hold of Felice's hand and kissing it gently, as if he was the one elected to shield her from dread news.

"It's about Captain Soames, dearest Shareef. Before you see him, there is something you must know."

From here, Felicity took over. But this time, her presence in the group was soft, gentle, and even yielding as she spoke the difficult truth about her patient.

"Captain Soames was badly injured, Shareef." Felicity began slowly, and speaking gently so that each of her words could be absorbed and understood one at a time. "He has massive splinters of wood in his legs, and lower torso. Probably from the time when your ship ran aground." Felicity continued, summoning up a gentle but brave tone from somewhere inside herself. "One leg in particular is very badly infected." Felicity continued, trying her best to make a hard clinical truth easier to absorb.

"The infection has spread throughout his body, and we're not sure we can heal his legs, or himself enough to save his life." Felicity told Shareef frankly but gently.

"He's in and out of consciousness, my dear." Felice told Shareef.

"Shibu has told us something of your life at sea." Felice continued. "We Enripsa medical staff reckon that you and the surviving crew are the closest thing Captain Soames has to a family." Felice explained, softening the blow with her voice as much as she could, as she spoke the next sentence. "We need you to make a decision about whether or not to try to save him by removing his leg, Shareef."

Shareef spent the next few moments in stunned silence. Finally, he drew in a deep breath, and with it the resolution to go ahead. He turned to Felicity, within the tight circle that the group had established inside the office room.

"I can't do this alone." Shareef replied. "This is a decision for my crew also. Where are they?"

"When we understood that this might be a problem, we sent messages to other hospitals in Bonta, and managed to get all of the survivors gathered together here." Felicity related. "Before the announcement and the grand stampede, we managed to get them isolated into a ward of their own."

"There are twenty-eight survivors we've been able to account for." Cici put in. "One or two may have slipped away from the hospital, but we doubt it." The redheaded archer continued.

"All right." Shareef answered at last. "I need to see them, and tell them what you've told me. I was only third officer aboard the Gypsy Star. But I will tell my crew the truth, and we will see Captain Soames in the hospital as a crew." Shareef told his family.

“Captain Soames was our leader for nearly five years." Shareef informed them. "I think he deserves a voice in his own life, if he's not too sick to understand what is going on." Shareef fell silent for a long moment, and everyone in the circle with him could feel the weight he carried as he stepped toward the door.

"Wait, Shareef." Felice told him as Shareef moved to open the solid oak door that shielded the group from what was still a huge mass of people just beyond the door.

"We have Captain Soames stabilized." Felice told her son. "He's not critical anymore, but how long he will stay that way is in question, so you and your crew have some time to gather, and consider the alternatives." Felice told him honestly.

"If you take his leg, are you certain he will live?" Shareef asked.

"That's where the source of the infection in his blood is located." Felice explained, turning from new mother into gentle but factual healer. "There is a risk that the operation may weaken him too much." Felice added. "That's why we need a decision from those who know him best. You have lived with Captain Soames, and survived with him over the years." Felice explained. "You have the one thing that we need now as much as brushes and potions." Felice said to Shareef. "You are his friends." Felice said. "The medicine that you and your friends have is called insight." Felice explained quietly but firmly.

After a moment, Shareef nodded tightly, visibly fighting to contain his emotions once again, but this time for an entirely different reason.

"Let's wait a while, for the hospital and shelter to empty." Shareef said quietly. "Once most everyone is gone, I'll reassemble the crew, talk to them, and then we're likely to have a vote." Shareef told his loved ones.

"What a terrible thing!" Felicity said. "A vote on someone's life." The young Enripsa said, trying to understand the simple but terrible implications.

"Life at sea is very different from life ashore, Felicity." Shareef explained gently. "A Captain and the crew form a partnership when they sail. It is all very democratic, and while the captain is the final authority, aboard any ship that practices maritime trade, the crew also has a voice." Shareef explained.

"I think I understand." Cici said quietly. "You vote with your lives, and with your work." Cici observed. "If one of you were in the hospital, rather than your Captain, while you were at sea, the captain and the crew would make the same decision for you as you must make now for your Captain."

"Yes, sister Cici. That is so. It is part of the articles we sign when we become members of the ship's company." Shareef answered. "It may seem strange to many who have never been to sea. But among those of us who prosper and fail as a crew, it is the best way. We are bonded one to another." Shareef explained.

"Exactly like a family." Shibu put in, speaking slowly, so that each word he spoke carried weight and meaning. "I understand, brother." Shibu continued. "In a while, I will see to it that you and your crew are reunited, and that you are left alone for a while, to decide what you must for Captain Soames." Shibu told Shareef, the tone of his voice containing both a promise, and a trace of hope for the future.

"Felice?" Shareef inquired gently.

"Yes, my darling boy?"

"If you take his leg, and halt the infection, how long will it be before Captain Soames could return to the sea, and to the life he knows?" Shareef asked, going deeper into the question at hand than most would dare to venture. 

"I would say anywhere from four to six months." Felice answered. "He would have to learn to walk, and to get around again in a different way, both on land, and aboard ship."

"Thank you, mother." Shareef said sympathetically. "Both for trying to save his life, and being honest about what his life is likely to be if we can save him." Shareef said gently. "This is the sort of thing that the crew will ask, before they decide."

"I understand, Shareef." Felice replied. "Both Felicity and I will be nearby, if any of the crew have medical questions about Captain Soames. Since we think of you and the crew as his family, we will give all of you as much information as we can, and answer any question you may have." Felice answered, fulfilling her obligations both as a healer, and as a new mother.

"This may seem and out of place question." Shareef considered for a moment. "But is anyone here in need of food or drink before this is done?"

"We did miss lunch." Felicity put in. "Some people handle a crisis better on a full stomach, some don't." She said sympathetically.

"Either way, you'll need your strength, Shareef." Cici remarked. "Take care of yourself first, and then we'll think about your crew."

Between Shibu and Felicity, it took almost no time to sweep Shareef into the office, off to one side, with a solid oak door between the group and the matting crowd. It was Shareef himself who threw both the door bolts, and the floor bolts with a satisfying kick.

"Brother mine!" Shareef said with relief. "I like and admire the people of Bonta, but that crowd could take someone's life, entirely without intending to do anyone any harm!"

Shibu nodded, and clapped his brother solidly across the shoulders  
before sweeping him into a hug that the two of them held for a long moment. Even Felicity was taken into the hug for a moment, and found herself being held by both Shibu and Shareef.

After a moment, the sound of a polite cough elsewhere in the room turned the trio around, with their backs to the door.

Shareef found himself under the gaze of two pairs of eyes. One of them as green as his own, and another light blue, but an entirely different shade from Shibu's unique vision.

"My stars!" Felice exclaimed quietly. "Aren't you the handsomest one in Bonta, alongside my Shibu!"

The sudden and swift approval from Shibu's mother took Shareef to one knee before the pair of figures.

"Indeed and truly, everything brother Shibu has told me of Felice and Cici is as true as the beauty of both of them." Shareef replied humbly. "As Shibu's brother, I am yours until the stars burn away, and we see the last Dawn together." Shareef continued.

"I see we have another reader in the family, and as handsome as he is cultured." Cici responded, dropping to one knee herself to return Shareef's demonstration of veneration. "Unless I'm very wrong in my own readings, and from what I am told, brother Shareef comes from the lands of endless sands, far to the east." Cici told the group.

"It is so!" Shareef said with remarkable surprise shimmering in his own green eyes. "You are the second Bontarian who I know that knows something of my humble beginnings. I applaud your knowledge and understanding." Shareef replied, adding a bow of his head as he spoke.

"Go on and get up, Shareef!" Felice said with jovial informality in her voice. "The only time this family bows to anyone, is to King Louis."

Shareef stood up at once, and Felice was standing as close to him in front as Shibu was standing next to him on one side.

"To the son whom I love and to he who is called Shareef whom I now adopt as his brother. And as my son's brother, you are my child, as he is my child, and forever will be. You are both my sons, now and forever. Welcome to the family, Shareef."

As she finished speaking, Felice used all of the strength she could muster to hug Shareef, close, warm and gently. As she held him close, her hands drifted across his broad back, where her healers experienced hands could feel the deep scars almost chiseled into Shareef's back.

"You're safe, you're warm, and you're well, my handsome, wonderful Shareef. My heart is yours, as it is Shibu's, and by the goddess Enripsa, no one will ever harm you ever again so long as I live. I love you, Shareef, son of mine, and brother to my Shibu." Felice spoke gently aloud as she held Shareef, a true declaration of the Enripsa heart, made before their deity. Felice had made her words not only part of her life from this moment on, but a part of her spirit as well.

Shareef simply melted, to the consistency of soft candle wax, as he had the first time in Shibu's embrace. The tears of joy that flowed down his olive cheeks found no convenient hat tail to dry them this time. Instead, Felice let Shareef weep, understanding that it was as much therapy and relief for him, as it was communal joy for the family.

"I lost my family in the dark of night, so long ago. I have searched for them ever since, praying for a Dawn of light." Shareef responded, his voice breaking as the tears flowed from his eyes.

"This moment is the sunrise for which I have lived all this time. Wherever they are, my parents brought me to this family. My love and devotion to you all are absolute, and from this moment forward, you are my family of light, life, and love." Shareef told Felice, Cici, and Shibu.

Standing in the group, with her back to the door, and watching intently, the only one crying bigger tears then Shareef was Felicity herself.

“Shareef?" A softer voice intoned. "Please me now, new brother, and hear the heart and soul of the Cra, and of the Ranger."

Shareef obeyed, almost by reflex, as if the will and the want to turn and face Cici was as much his own volition as her own.

For the first time, Shareef got a long and deep look into another set of forest green eyes. Cici was nearly six feet tall, with a fall of red hair which seem more like a living lava flow than any natural adornment. She was dressed, as usual, in her formal but functional Ranger's garb, Lincoln green, with accents of brown and black. Both the short pants that she wore, and the short sleeves that gave away to long forearm length gloves which showed off a set of limbs, both arms and legs hardened to a sleek suppleness by a lifetime of living and thinking of nothing but the hunt and the bow. 

Cici was a formidable sight, and before anyone else's eyes, she could be unintentionally intimidating. But as Shareef looked up at her, there was something else entirely in his own green eyes. Not only a light of wonder and grandeur, but a bright light of kinship which shone through to Cici's experienced eyes like a green double star set into the night sky.

"Shareef, my new brother, also called Al Azim, I accept you as my own flesh and blood, and pledge my heart to you as a sister as long as arrows can fly, and the bow can be drawn under the eyes of the goddess Cra." Cici began solemnly. "I take you onto my wings, as the Eagle takes her young, alongside my brother Shibu. I pledge you in the name of the goddess Cra to love you, keep you, and light your path from this moment forward. You are my blood, and I make myself your blood in turn. Nothing will ever separate us again. By Cra, this I swear, before you, before those I love, and all here who bear witness. As from this moment, I have not one brother, but a pair of brothers, who are more dear to me one thousand times than any bow I may draw for all the rest of my days."

Shareef was so moved, that the only motion he could make was to fall on to his knees before Cici, and then reaching up to take her hands into his and hold them firmly as he replied.

“I am yours forever. A brother, A liege heart, and a Ranger to be. You, as all of my family are as much a part of me, as my fingers, my hand, or my arm. And I promise you and pledge you, love, light, loyalty, and honor forever and for always."

After he was done speaking, Shareef rose to his feet once again, and gently but firmly hugged Cici about the shoulders as she knelt before him, so the two could hold one another. Shareef in turn kissed both of Cici's cheeks gently, and whispered one word, one word that made the battle hardened Ranger weep once again as if she was a little girl, drawing puffy clouds.

"Sister." Was all Shareef had to say to reduce Cici to a gently crying puddle of warmth, and joy.

Shareef nodded to Cici, as both of them shared a pool of fine tears, and then Shareef looked with loving and gentle soft eyes toward Felice and Shibu.

Shareef took Felice into a deep, soft and gentle hug, that let the two of them hold one another close and gentle.

"Mother mine." Shareef said to her softly.

Felice began to weep gently also, and as the trio was reduced to a flow of tears together, Shibu was surprised to feel Felicity wrap herself around him, with her head gently upon his broad shoulder.

Shibu's response was more emotion than reflex, as he held Felicity as close and gentle as he might a second sister.

"By all the stars above!" Felicity whispered to him, as the two held one another. "What a family you have, and I wish I could be one part in a hundred as lucky as you are to have them." Felicity let him know in a gentle whisper.

Felicity held onto Shibu, as Bonta's hero in red silks shed tears of happiness also.

"I don't mean to spoil the occasion, Shibu." Felicity whispered to him gently, but I can't deny what's in this room right now, so I'm not going to try." Felicity continued. "Shibu, I love you, I always have, from the first moment I saw you, and I always will, forever and always." Felicity admitted gently to Shibu. "You can take that for what it's worth, but it's the truth of my heart, just as much as the love in this room is the truth in the hearts of others shared between them."

Shibu made no reply, except to kiss Felicity tenderly, on her nose, in keeping with the family tradition. 

"Thank you Felicity." Shibu said at last. "I'm so lucky to have all of you. Not even good King Louis must be as lucky as I am to have a family like all of you."

"And then, there is my brother, he who is called Shibu." Like the Sea Dragon under which he was born, he is my protector, my hope, my love, and my glory." Shareef said looking gently into Shibu's limpid blue eyes. "I love no one anywhere more than he, and it will be so as much as I love my family, for my whole life long."

"I wish I had better news to give my brother on this happiest of all occasions." Shibu replied. "Shareef, we wanted to give you our family, so you would understand that no matter what is to come, you are not alone, and that we can face anything together." Shibu told Shareef in a gentle but firm voice.

"What you must know my dearest one is not easy, but we will not hide the truth from one we love, about one who he cares for." Felice picked up gently.

For Shareef, there was a palpable note of dread in Felice's soft and gentle voice.

"Go ahead mother, hold nothing back. I am ready." Shareef replied,  
taking a hold of Felice's hand and kissing it gently, as if he was the one elected to shield her from dread news.

"It's about Captain Soames, dearest Shareef. Before you see him, there is something you must know."

From here, Felicity took over. But this time, her presence in the group was soft, gentle, and even yielding as she spoke the difficult truth about her patient.

"Captain Soames was badly injured, Shareef." Felicity began slowly, and speaking gently so that each of her words could be absorbed and understood one at a time. "He has massive splinters of wood in his legs, and lower torso. Probably from the time when your ship ran aground." Felicity continued, summoning up a gentle but brave tone from somewhere inside herself. "One leg in particular is very badly infected." Felicity continued, trying her best to make a hard clinical truth easier to absorb.

"The infection has spread throughout his body, and we're not sure we can heal his legs, or himself enough to save his life." Felicity told Shareef frankly but gently.

"He's in and out of consciousness, my dear." Felice told Shareef.

"Shibu has told us something of your life at sea." Felice continued. "We Enripsa medical staff reckon that you and the surviving crew are the closest thing Captain Soames has to a family." Felice explained, softening the blow with her voice as much as she could, as she spoke the next sentence. "We need you to make a decision about whether or not to try to save him by removing his leg, Shareef."

Shareef spent the next few moments in stunned silence. Finally, he drew in a deep breath, and with it the resolution to go ahead. He turned to Felicity, within the tight circle that the group had established inside the office room.

"I can't do this alone." Shareef replied. "This is a decision for my crew also. Where are they?"

"When we understood that this might be a problem, we sent messages to other hospitals in Bonta, and managed to get all of the survivors gathered together here." Felicity related. "Before the announcement and the grand stampede, we managed to get them isolated into a ward of their own."

"There are twenty-eight survivors we've been able to account for." Cici put in. "One or two may have slipped away from the hospital, but we doubt it." The redheaded archer continued.

"All right." Shareef answered at last. "I need to see them, and tell them what you've told me. I was only third officer aboard the Gypsy Star. But I will tell my crew the truth, and we will see Captain Soames in the hospital as a crew." Shareef told his family.

“Captain Soames was our leader for nearly five years." Shareef informed them. "I think he deserves a voice in his own life, if he's not too sick to understand what is going on." Shareef fell silent for a long moment, and everyone in the circle with him could feel the weight he carried as he stepped toward the door.

"Wait, Shareef." Felice told him as Shareef moved to open the solid oak door that shielded the group from what was still a huge mass of people just beyond the door.

"We have Captain Soames stabilized." Felice told her son. "He's not critical anymore, but how long he will stay that way is in question, so you and your crew have some time to gather, and consider the alternatives." Felice told him honestly.

"If you take his leg, are you certain he will live?" Shareef asked.

"That's where the source of the infection in his blood is located." Felice explained, turning from new mother into gentle but factual healer. "There is a risk that the operation may weaken him too much." Felice added. "That's why we need a decision from those who know him best. You have lived with Captain Soames, and survived with him over the years." Felice explained. "You have the one thing that we need now as much as brushes and potions." Felice said to Shareef. "You are his friends." Felice said. "The medicine that you and your friends have is called insight." Felice explained quietly but firmly.

After a moment, Shareef nodded tightly, visibly fighting to contain his emotions once again, but this time for an entirely different reason.

"Let's wait a while, for the hospital and shelter to empty." Shareef said quietly. "Once most everyone is gone, I'll reassemble the crew, talk to them, and then we're likely to have a vote." Shareef told his loved ones.

"What a terrible thing!" Felicity said. "A vote on someone's life." The young Enripsa said, trying to understand the simple but terrible implications.

"Life at sea is very different from life ashore, Felicity." Shareef explained gently. "A Captain and the crew form a partnership when they sail. It is all very democratic, and while the captain is the final authority, aboard any ship that practices maritime trade, the crew also has a voice." Shareef explained.

"I think I understand." Cici said quietly. "You vote with your lives, and with your work." Cici observed. "If one of you were in the hospital, rather than your Captain, while you were at sea, the captain and the crew would make the same decision for you as you must make now for your Captain."

"Yes, sister Cici. That is so. It is part of the articles we sign when we become members of the ship's company." Shareef answered. "It may seem strange to many who have never been to sea. But among those of us who prosper and fail as a crew, it is the best way. We are bonded one to another." Shareef explained.

"Exactly like a family." Shibu put in, speaking slowly, so that each word he spoke carried weight and meaning. "I understand, brother." Shibu continued. "In a while, I will see to it that you and your crew are reunited, and that you are left alone for a while, to decide what you must for Captain Soames." Shibu told Shareef, the tone of his voice containing both a promise, and a trace of hope for the future.

"Felice?" Shareef inquired gently.

"Yes, my darling boy?"

"If you take his leg, and halt the infection, how long will it be before Captain Soames could return to the sea, and to the life he knows?" Shareef asked, going deeper into the question at hand than most would dare to venture. 

"I would say anywhere from four to six months." Felice answered. "He would have to learn to walk, and to get around again in a different way, both on land, and aboard ship."

"Thank you, mother." Shareef said sympathetically. "Both for trying to save his life, and being honest about what his life is likely to be if we can save him." Shareef said gently. "This is the sort of thing that the crew will ask, before they decide."

"I understand, Shareef." Felice replied. "Both Felicity and I will be nearby, if any of the crew have medical questions about Captain Soames. Since we think of you and the crew as his family, we will give all of you as much information as we can, and answer any question you may have." Felice answered, fulfilling her obligations both as a healer, and as a new mother.

"This may seem and out of place question." Shareef considered for a moment. "But is anyone here in need of food or drink before this is done?"

"We did miss lunch." Felicity put in. "Some people handle a crisis better on a full stomach, some don't." She said sympathetically.

"Either way, you'll need your strength, Shareef." Cici remarked. "Take care of yourself first, and then we'll think about your crew."


	17. The Long Roll

A few minutes later, Shareef took a deep breath, and squared his shoulders. Behind the door in front of him was the hardest thing he had ever had to do.

But he took a moment to appreciate his situation. He was wearing Shibu's silks, and they were already comfortably warm and incredibly light against his skin. Wearing them gave Shareef insight into how and why so much seem to come so easily to Shibu.

Shareef found himself wishing he could borrow a little bit of the same skill and luck right now.

He drew one more deep breath, and then step forward resolutely to open the door.  
The massive door was exquisitely balanced, as was every door in Bonta Castle. Shareef had grasped the ring and pulled with such resolution that the door itself seem to fly open, and in a moment, across the doorway, Shareef caught his first sight of his missing shipmates.

The entire ship's company of the Gypsy Star had set out as thirty good hands and true, every one of them an experienced mariner, with the exception of Shareef himself. Captain Soames rarely took aboard anyone who was likely to turn as green as seawater a soon as his vessel left port. But he remembered Captain Soames eyes, the first time the master mariner had sized up his newest cabin boy. Soames had seen something in him, and like most of his best instincts, Soames had turned out not only to be correct, but to be an individual of deep insight when he wished to be.

Now Shareef owed him something in return for that trust, and no matter how difficult it might be for him personally, Shareef wasn't going to betray someone who had put trust in him.

The figure that fell first beneath Shareef's glance was both familiar, and a friend! Shareef felt an electric current of happiness replace all his doubts, as a tall figure sporting along shock of white hair and skin as tanned as good leather broke into his own smile as he caught sight of Shareef.

"Attention on deck for the third officer!" The white haired man hollered as he snapped up right, and into a smart salute aimed directly at Shareef.

The entire remaining ships company, seven and twenty in number immediately followed the first officers example, as the crew fell in rank-and-file in the space that had been provided for them.

Shareef also snapped to attention, and returned the salute from the ship's company with a sharp clean action that any sailor would appreciate.

"Ships company, stand easy, by your leave." Shareef said as he stepped into the room, and closed the door behind him.

"First officer begs to report, ships company assembled as requested, Mister Shareef."

"Thank you very much, First. Or perhaps for now I should say Captain Gallagher."

"We've not settled that yet, lad, and we won't until Captain Soames is present, and all correct." Mister Gallagher replied.

"I'm afraid I'm the bearer of ill tidings, Shipmates." Shareef began, not quite knowing how or where to start. "Captain Soames is in a bad way." Shareef began, not knowing any other way to make what he had to say any easier on his shipmates. "When he laid the ship aground on the shoals to save the rest of us, he was badly injured." Shareef reported somberly to a group of faces suddenly as crestfallen and worried as his own. "I'm told that he must lose a leg, or lose his life." Shareef told his shipmates soberly. "Problem is, the captain is in such a bad way that his mind is not his own, owing to the infection of his wounds." Shareef gathered himself and valiantly continued. "The healers thought that because we're his crew, that we might stand to make the decision for him, because we all know him best." Shareef summarized, his voice thick and heavy with regret as he spoke.

Mister Gallagher considered what he'd been told, looking for all the world if someone had dropped the entire hull of the ship onto his shoulders. But after a second, Mister Gallagher pulled himself together, reclaiming his station as first officer.

"It's a fair thing to do, for a Captain who cannot speak for himself." Mister Gallagher told his shipmates quietly. "Let's hear from all of you, beginning with the ones who have shipped with Captain Soames the longest. Speak honestly and speak truth, because we owe Captain Soames that much at least." Mister Gallagher told the ship's company.

Slowly, but surely, a spare dark hand went up in the back of the room.

"I signed on with Soames three and ten summers ago." The man said clearly. "That puts me on the first page of the book, I reckon."

"Go on Steptoe, speak your piece. No man here will hold anything against you, or against anyone else for what we say between ourselves this day." Mister Gallagher told the able seaman.

"Cor, seems to me that's a rum go!" Steptoe said gravely. "I can't imagine Captain Soames without a quarter deck underneath him, and his pleasure to go where we will." The seaman said, with the dark tone of sadness in his voice. "'Tis' a tough thing to say, but I think Soames would rather hear the long roll than not be able to go to sea again.” Steptoe said in a somber tone. 

"I wish our Captain no ill wind, but there's some who's wed to the sea, and Captain Soames is one of them." Steptoe said, speaking plain words about the Captain he knew. "I think if he has to quit the sea, he will be like a beached whale. He may live for some small while, but without the sea, sure enough, he will pass, and sooner than later.“

Their was a general murmur of agreement from the other members of the ship's company. The atmosphere in the small room gradually became darker still as Steptoe continued. 

'Tis a cruel fate, but there's the truth what I know." Steptoe said finally. "Thankye, Mister Gallagher, for letting me have my say. If Soames lives, I'll sign on with him wherever he wants to go, but I can't see no man who's done so much as him living half a life trapped on land, anywhere within sight or smell of the ocean." Steptoe added. "It would be a cruelty beyond living, and were I in his place, I'd hear the long roll, and take my place with all them sailors what's gone down to their deep rest."

Steptoe nodded to the others in the room, and then quietly stood back again, as if he had been absorbed by the stone walls of the room.

“And ye, Lad.” Mister Gallagher asked Shareef. “What think ye of all this?”

Shareef stepped forward. It had never dawned on him until this very moment how much he knew about Soams, and how well he knew his Captain. It all jumbled together in his mind, and Shareef had to give a mighty pull on the rope of his thoughts to make them lie straight again. It reminded Shareef of how Soams had taught him how to handle a line aboard ship.

“I admire Captain Soams. He, and you all have taught me everything I know about life on the sea.” Shareef answered. “But his life is not mine to give or take. Captain Soams should have the chance to live if he wants it. It's the same chance I would give to any one of my shipmates.” Shareef replied. “I say we try asking him, and if he can't answer for himself, then we have to think about what his life would be like as a cripple.” Shareef said bluntly. “Everyone has something or someone to live for.”

“The lad makes good sense ta me.” Seaman Squarerig said, taking his pipe from between what was left of his brown teeth. “The man who needs ta speak now is Captain Soams.”

“Very well, Mister Squarerig.” First Officer Gallagher said. “Ship's Company,On Hats!” The Officer snapped, just in the same way the rank and file of the crew snapped to attention a moment later. “We'll slip our anchor, and go see our Captain.” Gallagher told the assembled survivors of the Gypsy Star. “Ship's Company, Ahead, March, at the soft quickstep, mind ye all.”

As the crew of the Gypsy Star, ventured as a group out of the small office room, the ship's company look like the on deck watch stealing toward the rum locker to filch a tot of rum.

But after few steps, it became clear that most of the people who had sheltered in the castle keep hospital were gone, most of them set on trying to pick up the pieces of their lives in storm ravaged Bonta.  
Their soft footsteps echoed gently through the vast keep and its vaulted ceiling. As they walked along the rows of beds, there were a few here and there still occupied by those who would not, or in some cases could not leave on their own.

Most of those remaining were in a line of beds set apart against one of the white stone walls. These were emergency treatment beds, for the sick, the injured, and in one or two dire cases, those who would never again leave the great castle keep.

Shareef turned his head to Mister Gallagher as the ship's company walked along the single long row of beds.

"Captain Soames is in bed number six, Sir." Shareef told the first officer.

Mister Gallagher nodded, and at the appropriate moment his change of direction and the cadence of his footsteps notified the crew to do the same. Shareef split off from the group by a step, and took it upon himself to pull back and away on the curtains surrounding their captain's bedside, and the former cabin boy took a moment to secure them together in a bundle as if they were billowing sales to be lashed down before the rise of another typhoon.

The sound of the curtains being drawn back and away from the bedside seem to wake Captain Soames from a light slumber, which was accompanied by a slight whistle from the captain.

Being first officer, Mister Gallagher had wakened the captain on numerous occasions while the crew was at sea, and with a gentle touch of his hand, and a soft whisper, Mister Gallagher did the same thing, as the rest of the crew gathered around the bed in a half circle and waited.

"Captain, by your leave Sir?" Mister Gallagher said in a quiet but firm whisper.

Habit as much is hearing seem to jolt Captain Soames awake, as he still lay in the bed, with one leg secured, held motionless by a series of leather straps and uplifting pillows tucked in a great fluffy stack below his heel.

"Who goes there?" Captain Soames growled, some part of him still asleep. "Show your colors, and be recognized."

"It's Mister Gallagher, Sir." The first officer responded, instantly taking up his duties as leader of the crew when the captain was indisposed. "The crew is asking to see you, Sir. To know your wishes, and to wish ye well." The white haired sailor told his commanding officer.

The formality of the moment as well as the form of it seemed to clear Soames mind, and the Master of his vessel attempted to pull himself up straight, and to lie upon his elbows rather than upon his back as he recognized his crew and ship's company. The tension on his injured leg sent a shock of pain through his lower body. It showed for just a moment, as a grimace upon his face before the captain turned all the attention he could muster to his crew gathered around him.

"Thank you lads, one and all for coming to see this wreck of an old sea dog."

There was a general round of grumbling from the crew around the bed disputing the captain's assessment of his own condition.

"Now now!" Replied Soames speaking softly but seriously. "I'll have no grumbling among any crew of mine. For good lads you are, and good lads you'll always be, and where ever your Captain ends up, that'll be the affidavit I swear before anyone, be they angels, or be they devils." The captain told his crew.

"And look at this!" It's our new third, Mister Shareef, a bit out of uniform it would seem, but here beside you all, loyal as ever." Captain Soames said quietly, looking in Shareef's direction as he spoke, and sparing the youngest member of the crew a friendly wink.

"Mark you, Mister Gallagher." Soames said weakly, glancing back at the remainder of his crew. "Mister Shareef would make a fine second officer, after a bit of training, of course. When you pick up the charts and the glass on yer next ship, you'd be well advised to have Shareef here standing with you." 

"Begging the captain's pardon, but I think that'll be your decision rather than mine." Mister Gallagher replied.

From the comfortable depths of his bed, Captain Soames managed to lift and slowly shake his head. "This old sea dog has had his day, me boys. You know, they want my leg, and there's no promise that I won't end up hearin' the long roll, and restin' far below with so many friends and brothers." Captain Soames told the crew first, sparing them having to make mention of what was so obvious as they all looked upon him.

“But Captain Soames has never forgotten his crew, nor his friends, and you all are among that number."

As he spoke, Soames tried to move again, summoning all of the waning strength he could muster in a body quickly becoming weaker. The captain stretched out a hand toward some papers placed on the corner of the table next to his bedside. Soames managed to take hold of them gently, and slowly held them out crossways to Mister Gallagher, and to Shareef at the same time.

"Here ya go, my good crew and hearty lads. This writ disposes a double share for each of you in all that we've taken, all that we've made, and all we have. I would rather you have it then it wind up lost, or in another seaman's chest somewhere a far away." Soames told his assembled crew. "But Hark ye all!" Soames continued, his voice becoming softer and more gravelly as speaking came harder to him. 

"The second paper is a warrant of reclaim." Soames told them. "That means, from the money set aside by me for you all, there shall be another ship rebuilt for you all, just like the Star herself."

There was a gasp of surprise from among the able seaman grouped around the bed. Captain Soames had just handed them their lives, and their livelihoods back to them on a silver plate!

"Rebuilt she shall be, my Captain." Said Mister Gallagher with the tone of a solemn promise." Twice as big, and all the better than before with you at our helm." Mister Gallagher promised.

Soames managed an odd half smile, even as a slight cough racked his body. "I'll stand with ye all, forever and always, wherever the winds take my good crew. But it's a quarter deck that I shall never see with mortal eyes." Soames told them honestly, with a slightly distant look in his hazy eyes.

"Let them take your leg, if you please, sir!" Steptoe said speaking out of turn at the foot of the bed. "Three and ten have we seen together, and three and ten more shall we see, even if it's me who must be your staff and crutch. And that be my solemn promise to you and to this crew."

The outburst made Soames smile again, and this time, his eyes were more distant, and less in pain than before.

"Good faithful Steptoe!" Soames remarked. "Now there be a man for your third officer, or so I'm thinking." Soames replied. "It'd be a waste of a good seaman for you to cart around the likes of me for many more years, my good lad. But the boys here will need good leadership, and any man what's stood with Soames for three and ten knows my ways sure enough. No, Steptoe, you belong with this crew, you're a part of each other, and you always be a part of your Captain, until every last one of us has heard the long roll, and is together again in the down below deep."

Then Soames fell silent for a moment laboring to catch a deep breath and continue, even as Mister Steptoe turned away from the bed, so his crewmates in their circle would not see his tears. It wasn't seemly for a man of the sea to be seen weeping tears anyplace but on the sea herself.

"Mister Gallagher!" Captain Soames snapped summoning a great strength from somewhere deep inside himself. "You have your orders from Captain Soames, and no man Jack on the sea or on the shore has ever disobeyed my orders. "Find a ship wright here in this great city, and commission them a new vessel, as I've set forward. Then, take command, return to the sea, and always remember that you sail always with Captain Soames. That's an order, Captain Gallagher, and second officer Shareef!"

It took a moment, in a short glance between first officer Gallagher and Shareef before the two of them snapped to attention at their captain's bedside and saluted smartly, as best his emotions would allow. "Yes sir, understood Sir!" Both Shareef and the white haired officer said together at the same time.

"Now, for the rest of ye, set sail with your new Captain, for I have no wish to have your last sight of me be my passage away from all of you." Soames whispered to his crew at last. "Go forth, and be ye all true men of the sea, and remember that you sail with Captain Soames!"

Soames ordered his crew firmly, pulling in one more breath to add the final necessary component to the command. "Ship's company!" Soames snarled. "Dismissed!"

The assembled half circle of sailors, the crew of the late Gypsy Star all snapped to rigid attention, and saluted the man who seemed to slump down gently into the soft bed once he was finished speaking.

"Ship's company, on hats!" Captain Gallagher said sternly but softly to the assembled company. "Rally to me, and at the double quick, March by the soft step, together."

As the ship's company formed up in their closest formation and silently marched away from the bed, it was Captain Gallagher who turned a hand to Shareef, bringing his palm downward softly toward the floor, indicating that Shareef could remain for another moment if he wished it. Then Mister Gallagher turned, and with the soft shuffle of feet at the quickstep, the crew made for the great doors which marked the entrance and exit to the castle keep hospital.  
Shareef was grateful for the extra moment, and he turned back toward Captain Soames with gentle green eyes wet with tears.

"Captain Soames, I-" Shareef started to say, but then he simply could not go on, even as hard as he tried.

"Here now, my fine lad." Captain Soames said softly to Shareef. "We've had enough leakage aboard ship for one voyage, I think." As he spoke, Soames raised a hand, and passed it gently but firmly to Shareef's shoulder. "You're out of uniform, Mister Shareef. Old Captain Soames sees a different course for you I think." The captain told his ship's former cook and cabin boy. "You've always been different, and unique. Like the treasure every seafaring man seeks after. But fear you naught lad, whatever course you chart is endorsed by Captain Soames. I'll see you again, Mister Shareef, where the tides are always good, the wind is always fair, and the skies be always clear." Soames told him.

By this time, Shareef could not have answered if he'd wanted to, for he was simply crying too deeply to speak any word at all, even to his Captain and friend.

"Go on now, Shareef. This old seafaring man is at peace, the wind is fair, and I chart a course to a faraway land, where the memory of you will be among my treasures." Soames told him. "Go on now, and help my crew, for they need you now as much as I ever have. Fair winds, and rich treasures, Shareef."

As he finished speaking, Soames hand slipped gently off of Shareef's shaking shoulder, and drop peacefully back onto the bed. Shareef reached down, picking up Soames hand by the wrist. He held it for a moment, and placed it gently over his Captain's heart. Then Shareef turned from the bedside, and walked away at the quickstep after his crew, without looking back.


	18. Responsibility

As the sad and weary ships crew marched in unison out of the great keep of Bonta Castle, they felt the path beneath their feet begin to incline. As they approached one of the smaller gates which was wide open but also fully guarded at midday.

Shareef managed to catch up with the group doing a double-time quickstep down the incline at the peak of the hill which seem to be covered by an unbroken sea of the white marble blocks which gave the city her name. As Shareef came even with their number, he hesitated for just a moment before joining the space which had been open for him in the rank-and-file of the crew.

"Begging the captain's pardon, Sir." Shibu said more quietly and with less spirit than usual.

From his place in the lead of the ship's company, Mister Gallagher spoke up. Although he had commanded many a mission, and many a prize crew under Captain Soames, as of this moment he still was not used to being the single voice for this particular crew, or their ship to be.

"Yes, third officer, or make that second officer Shareef?" Mister Gallagher asked quietly in return, without any of the usual high- toned spit and polish that went along with addressing the ship's master.

"Sir, I am very sad to report that Captain Soames--" here Shareef halted and faltered once again, because he simply could not bring himself to deal with the experience or the outcome.

"Very well, second officer Shareef." Captain Gallagher replied quietly, obviously struggling back his own emotions in front of the shipmates who were now his crew, and his responsibility. "As soon as the new ship's log is established, make a note of the event as the first thing in the log." Captain Gallagher ordered simply.

"Yes sir, I shall Sir." Shareef replied as both duty and courtesy demanded, but with none of the happy expectations that usually went with a brand-new vessel and a brand new Master.

"Mister Shareef, do you know the city well?" Captain Gallagher asked keeping his voice subdued as he spoke.

"I have studied some maps, and heard many things from my new brother and his family." Shareef answered smartly. "What does the captain require?" Shareef asked in return.

"Services for Captain Soames, Shareef." Mister Gallagher replied as he struggled once more to keep his voice from breaking. "Did you say you had family in Bonta, Shareef?" Captain Gallagher inquired informally of his new second officer.

"Yes sir, I do have family in the city, but this is my first day here, as well as yours, without the storm looming above our heads." Shareef answered.

"If it wouldn't be too much of a burden, Mister Shareef, could the ship's company impose on you to take charge of making the arrangements for Captain Soames and the services which will be required?" Captain Gallagher asked pointedly, as he knew that Soames had no family in Bonta, and no one else on the crew was psychologically fit at the moment to do the clear thinking which was required to arrange funeral services and burial at sea.

"I would be honored, Sir." Shareef said with a steady voice now filled with quiet resolution because he knew he was acting one last time for his mentor and friend.

"By your leave Sir, I will chart my own course for a time, and also enlist the help of my family, who I am certain are much better versed in such sensitive matters, if that suits the captain and the ship's company, that is?" Shareef asked formally but quietly.

"Go on ahead, lad, make harbor with your family, and set things square for Captain Soames." Captain Gallagher replied. "We will leave word at the sailor's home of where we will be, before the celebrations begin this evening." Captain Gallagher told Shareef sympathetically. "We will rendezvous with you tonight to hear the king speak to the city, and learn what sort of construction prospects there will be for our new ship, once the city itself is set right again." Captain Gallagher told Shareef.

Shareef answered with his first really formal salute, which Captain Gallagher paused to return before he resumed his place at the head of the crew, and marched the ship's company toward a familiar inn not far distant. "The crew and I will drop anchor in the tavern for a while, Mister Shareef, and try to catch news brought in by other sailors trapped here by the storm."

"Aye-Aye, Captain Gallagher." Shareef replied formally and quickly, returning to his officers role within the ship's company. "I will see you tonight, with the best news that I can manage." Shareef told his shipmates, as the group divided once again, embarked for the tavern, which Shareef was still too young to enter without violating the law.

Shareef swallowed hard, to maintain his courage as he turned away from the group outside the tavern.  
Looking about him, Shareef suddenly wished more than anything that Shibu could be at his side. He had a quick second thought about seeking out such doleful corners of a strange city by himself, and found himself breaking into a loping run back toward the top of Castle Hill, and his new family.

The run helped improve Shareef's mood, as physical exercise always did. Aboard ship, no sailor had time to brood excessively about events, or petty grievances with his fellow shipmates. There was always something to do, and always more to be done. That much of the sailor's lot Shareef would miss dearly, at least for a while.

Shareef forgot that he was wearing Shibu's silks for a moment, so when he crested the stone covered top of Castle Hill itself, he was mildly surprised when a few of the gathered crowd broke into polite applause. He bowed to them politely, and smiled before ducking thankfully inside the castle gate house, which was still open, but always under guard. Out of sight of the crowd, he drew the attention of one of the guards on duty.

"Excuse me, Corporal." Shareef said politely.

Proper respect from the citizenry as well as the correct use of his rank and station brought a smile from the silver armored Sentinel, who until a moment before was looking entirely bored with his duty.

"And what can I do-" the guard began, but he fell silent quickly behind a broad smile. "Hello Shibu!" What can we do for you, that you haven't already done for us?"

Beneath the light weight of the silks, Shareef found himself blushing nearly as red as Shibu's favorite color. Up to now, Shareef had enjoyed small insights into the esteem in which Shibu was held, not only by the guards and staff of the castle, but by Bontarians in general.

"Begging your pardon, Corporal." Shareef began politely. "I'm sorry for the confusion, but I think you've mistaken me for my brother." Shareef explained calmly.

The guard on duty took a somewhat closer, slightly squinting look at the figure before him. The smile meant for Shibu quickly faded, and a look of general suspicion fell across the face of the Corporal of the guard.

"And just who might you be, then? Skulking around here pretending to be Sir Shibu?" The Corporal asked in a suspicious tone.

"Corporal, I am Shareef, I am Shibu's adopted brother. I wished only to inquire if you knew where he might be. I need to see him rather urgently." Shareef explained quickly.

The Corporal the guard eyed Shareef with suspicion. "Well then, just you come along with me, and will find Sir Shibu sure enough and get this sorted out." The Corporal the guard replied, sounding slightly gruff around the edges.

"Lead on." Was all the reply Shareef wanted to risk. He was not sure he could handle the shame if he was brought to his brother under arrest, rather than under escort.

Shereef soon discovered that having an escort was not as bad as it first might appear. There were still a good many confused, and some downright lost citizens trying to find their way out of the castle keep hospital and back down the hill, where their lives faced an uncertain future.

Another advantage of the unexpected situation made itself plain when his escort guard met another member of the guard's company.

"Escort for citizen wishing to see Sir Shibu!" The Corporal of the guard snapped firmly, as he saluted his opposite number on duty in a fixed Sentry box just outside the castle keep itself.  
The second guard in the chain didn't leave his sentry box, but rather lowered a small wooden panel set into the wall of the box itself.

"Corporal of the guard! Post number two! Summon Sir Shibu to post number two!" The second guard seem to shout out loud, while the wooden sentry box around him did a wonderful job of amplifying his voice!

"Guard post number three! Summon Sir Shibu, at once!" As the shout was raised by the next guard post in the chain within the heart of the castle.

Shibu was sitting on the edge of the same hospital bed he had occupied for some time after rescuing Shareef. He sat with Cici and Felice, this time contentedly cuddled close together, as the near echo of a shout came within Shibu's hearing.

"Sir Shibu to post number six!" The voice was one of the three brothers, just beyond the now open doors of the castle keep itself.  
Shibu hugged Cici and Felice, gently in turn, before they each released Shibu to answer the summons.

Shibu did so, by using the soft springiness of the hospital bed to best advantage. He stood, crouched slightly, and lept straight up into the air! As his feet cleared the bed itself, Shibu's fingers moved slightly in his familiar way, and before Shibu had begun to fall again, there was a portal waiting beneath him, into which Shibu dove as if he were landing in a swimming pool, and in a moment, he was gone from sight.

A moment later, Shibu was careful to appear from another portal, this one cast behind the fixed guards position number six. To the silver armored guard, Shibu seemed to appear out of the milling crowd still trying to get out of the castle and on down the hill.

"What's wrong, Sergeant?" Shibu inquired.

"Notification of a visitor for you, Sir Shibu. He waits at post number two, under escort of the Corporal of the guard." The sergeant replied, strictly in the line of duty.

"Thank you very much Sergeant." Shibu responded somewhat absently, with his chin resting on his thumb, as he tried to figure out who his visitor might be. It did not require one with Shibu's instincts and insight to come to the only conclusion!

"Oh my gosh, it must be Shareef!" Shibu said with a squeeze of surprise raising his voice slightly as the guard heard him speak a familiar name.

"A fair bet, I'll wager." Replied the Sargent of the Guard. "I reckon you best go find him as quick as you can. Bonta Castle can be an easy place for a stranger to get lost in." The sergeant of the guard answered.

"I think you're right. I'll see you later, Sergeant, and thank you very much." 

Shibu nodded, as the sergeant of the guard saluted him smartly, and turned back to his duty, watching over the milling crowd still trying to find their way out of the castle and to their homes.

Shibu took advantage of some of the swirling confusion, using the people in the crowd just like trees to hide behind, until Shibu came to a small out of the way alcove, near a firing slit, where Shibu could cast a portal again without being seen. This one he dove into almost before it was cast, with a spring in his step, and an arched curve in his back.

In a moment, Shibu was standing to one side of guard post number one, out of sight in the same sort of small alcove, which was meant as a retreat position for the guards, if the castle fell under siege. But at the moment, the only one besieging the castle seem to be the friendly crowds which tapered off quickly, as most of them saw the wide open main doors and hurried to leave the castle altogether until tonight.

Suddenly, Shibu felt someone close to him, as if a gentle hand had been laid on his shoulder. Yet no one or nothing that he could see had come close to him in any way. A heartbeat later, Shibu finally caught sight of Shareef, and a strange feeling return for a moment as Shibu's heart skipped two beats!

"Shareef, over here, brother!" Shibu called just loudly enough to make himself heard over the echo of the crowd noise being amplified by the shape of the doorway that led out of the great Castle.  
Shareef forgot entirely about his escort for the moment, and bolted straight for Shibu in an exuberant run! 

"Shibu!" Cried Shareef happily, as Shibu himself sprang into the air, and caught Shareef on the fly, holding him in a gentle hug as the two spun back to the stone walkway, standing together in the space of one person, rather than two.

"Well look here then!" The Corporal the guard exclaimed, catching just a bit of the happy exuberance in the brothers reunion. "I guess you do know Sir Shibu, after all!" The Corporal the guard interjected. "And look at the two of you, alike as two peanuts! Can you blame me for taking you for your brother, Sir Shareef?" The Corporal the guard asked.

The sudden use of Shibu's title on Shareef brought Shibu's silver haired brother up short. Shibu looked at his brother, and giggled brightly, all the time wearing a silly grin.

"No, I can see where you might've been confused, Corporal. But we won't hold it against you, Will we, Shareef?" Shibu asked with a touch of comedy as he set Shareef back on his feet beside him, and just in front of a very surprised Corporal of the guard.

"No, not at all, brother." Was all Shareef had to say for the moment.  
"Corporal James, of the guard Royal, I'd like to present my brother Shareef." Shibu said by way of introduction between the two of them.

"You'll be seeing a lot of him quite near me from now on, so if you would do me a favor, let the other guardsmen know that my handsome white haired brother here is a bit of all right." Shibu added speaking in a familiar and friendly way to the guard, who gladly took up Shibu's broad smile in return.

"No worries, Sir Shibu." Corporal James replied amicably. "Any brother of yours is as welcome as you are in the Kings throne room. And may I say, that if your skills run in the family, every one of us will feel much better for any help the two of you could see fit to offer." James told Shibu, before turning and kneeling in front of Shareef, so as to erase their difference in height.

"Forgive my suspicions, Sir Shareef, and I hope you will certainly count me as both a friend and a colleague." James said to the silver haired Eliotrope, who seemed the temporary twin of his brother.

"No hard feelings, Sir James." Shareef responded easily. "It is comforting to know that the kingdom, the King, and my most wonderful brother are so secure, and so well looked after by such as yourself." Shareef added.

For just a moment, the unexpected promotion for a member of the Royal guard, made James blush as red as the identical silks in front of him.

"Can you two manage, or is an escort still called for to get you through this crowd?" James asked affably.

"That's all right, Sir Jim." Shibu kidded with a bright smile that earned a wink in return from the guardsmen. "We need you to make sure the last of the good citizens depart the castle before we start preparations for the celebrations ordered by the King." Shibu told the guardsmen in a semi-confidential whisper.

"You can count on me, Sirs." Jim replied with a whisper of his own. The good citizens will leave on time, even if I have to light a fire behind them!" Jim replied with a chuckle.

Shibu doubled over laughing, and Shareef found himself struggling to hold his brother up, as Shibu turned as red as the silks he was wearing!

"I'll see you two tonight at the celebrations, that's certain. I know, because my name's on the duty roster." Jim told them both, as Shibu struggled to stand straight again and wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes.

"Go on then, Jim." Shibu told him with a nod as he recovered his balance.

The silver armored guardsmen snapped out his best salute, turned on his heels, and marched back toward the familiar guard post close to the door.

As soon as they were alone again, and able to use the crowd for cover, Shibu led Shareef back into the alcove, where he opened a portal to Felice and Cici that both of them quickly dove through before they could be seen again.

Shibu and Shareef seemed to drop lightly out of nearly thin air below the blue circle back in the security of the hospital office within the keep.

"Brother, how do you do that?" Shareef asked, his voice filled with a mixture of childlike wonder and insatiable curiosity.

Shibu only smiled in return and said. "That's our next step together, Shareef. I'm going to teach you how to do that!" Shibu informed his silver haired brother.

The expression of undisguised amazement in Shareef's green eyes was almost enough to overcome yet another feeling Shareef was having trouble understanding.

"Mother, brother, and sister Cici, I bring sad news." Shareef told his new family quietly.

Before Shareef could move again, they were all sitting in a close circle around Shareef on the bed which decorated the corner of the office.

Felice spoke first, her empathy working almost too well as she felt a current of sadness well up underneath Shareef's momentary surprise and gladness.

"Captain Soames has passed away." Shareef told his loved ones in a quiet whisper of nearly breathless emotions as he spoke. Cici was sensitive to the tears that rolled out of Shareef's hazy green eyes, and fell onto the soft bed sheets with a watery plop that could be heard underneath his words.

"Oh my poor sweet boy!" Felice interjected, sweeping in to take hold of Shareef and hold him firmly as the white haired boy simply dissolved into tears.

"Oh sweetheart, I'm so sorry." Cici said sympathetically. "He must've been your father, and your best friend, in a way." Cici dropped her head, both feeling Shareef's sense of loss, while the same moment she imagined losing any of those close around her. The Ranger understood why it was that Shareef needed to cry, in this moment as much as he needed to be surprised the moment before. Cici leaned over and slid her svelte arms tenderly around Shareef as Felice held him from the other side. "Don't worry, sweetheart. You'll always have us, and none of us is going anywhere, I promise." Cici said sympathetically as Shareef's grief caused his entire body to tremble as he wept.

"Cici is right." Shibu said gently as he joined the family hug with Shareef at its center. "We all love you very much Shareef, and I promise that you'll never be alone again for as long as I live. That's my promise to you, too." Shibu told Shareef gently but firmly, with the sort of determination which Shareef so admired in his brother. He had already seen that when Shibu promised something, nothing Shareef could imagine in all the world would stop Shibu from keeping his word.

"Thank you all so much, mother, sister, and brother." Shareef told the group, even as he struggled to draw enough of a breath to speak aloud.

"It's all right, dear." Felice answered. "Now take it slowly, and tell us exactly what we need to do to help you." Felice added sympathetically.

Shareef nodded, and taking down the hood on his set of Shibu's red silks, Shareef forced himself to think, his logical mind coming to terms with events for the first time. 

And even now, with his family around him, Shareef found that thinking about what he had been asked to do was still incredibly difficult. But Shareef drew another deep breath, while surrounded by the warmth and love of three familiar sets of arms, and slowly, Shareef felt his sense of duty take over once more.

"I've been promoted to second officer of our crew." Shareef thought out loud, more than addressing his remarks to any one person. "Since I knew Captain Soames as well as anyone on the old crew, they elected me to arrange services for Captain Soames."

"Oh my stars!" Felice interjected. "That's an awful lot to be asking of someone who knew him at a time like this!" Felice said in a more than slightly critical tone.

Shareef shook his head gently in response. "It's something I promised them that I would do, because my Captain was also my friend."

"Shareef?" Cici asked gently.

"Yes my beautiful sister?" Shareef answered as the last of his tears rolled gently onto the front piece of his red silks, and were repelled gently, like falling raindrops rather than tears.

"It may make you feel better to know that you and your brother share something else." Cici told Shareef with a gentle tone of sympathy.

"You are both older than you seem, and much more mature in some very important ways." Cici told him, as she gently brushed back his slightly unruly silver white hair, which had been ruffled slightly by his silken hood. 

"This is something that you shouldn't do alone my dear." Felice told Shareef gently. "Instead, if you don't mind, we'll figure all this out between us, and if your crew likes the idea, we'll go ahead. Does that suit you, dearest?" Felice asked at last.

Shareef nodded again, a bit more slowly and somberly this time. "I think that would be wonderful, mother. Thank you for all your strength, and gentle understanding. I felt lost and alone when I was by myself outside the tavern." Shareef confessed quietly to his family. "But with all of you around me, I think I have the strength to do what's right for an old friend and mentor." Shareef added, as he took them first one at a time, and then all three at once into his arms, and hugged his family close and cozy.

"Thank you dearest." Felice replied. "The first way we do this is to talk about Captain Soames, and what he was like. Would that hurt you too much, my darling boy?" Felice asked gently, not wanting to push Shareef's grief deeper into his wounded soul.

"No, mother." Shareef began to answer. "Thinking about him now, it seems I have nothing but wonderful things to remember about him, and I remember every detail about him, as if we were still standing on deck together at the rail, as we did the morning before the storm hit." Shareef explained with a gentle determination and warm energy.

"That's wonderful my dear!" Felice replied sweetly. "Those are exactly the things you should remember at a time like this, my sweet. Now, you'll have to tell us some of them, so we can understand what the captain liked, and what might be enjoyable for his service, to let others remember him the same way that you do. Do you understand, sweetheart?" Felice asked Shareef tenderly at last.

"Yes, mother, I do understand. And I don't feel quite so sad or lonely anymore, with all of you here."

"Don't worry brother, that's exactly what family is all about." Shibu told Shareef as the family got up as a group from their place on the bed, and moved to sit in a close circle around a small table.

Cici produced parchment and ink, but held the stroke of her quill, waiting for Shareef to talk about his Captain as best the moment would allow.


	19. Remembrance

Shareef's family sat back and listened, completely transfixed as Shareef began his tale of Captain Soames and the first time the two had met aboard ship. Shareef had been barely able to lift one of the powder bags for the ship's main guns. His first day of practice had been an unqualified disaster, with more precious black powder ending up spilled on the ship's deck than into the mouth of the six pound cannon.

It was an open question to the rough-and-tumble crew whether their newest powder monkey carried cannonballs, or whether the cannonballs carried the boy, as he soon adapted to the art of swinging the cannonball in the direction he wanted to go as he walked along the deck toward the gun, and then using a great overhand and overhead heave to raise the heavy iron ball up and into the mouth of the canon.

Initially, Shareef had won his place on the crew for making them laugh as they watched him work. But Captain Soames, who always watched carefully from the quarter deck was the only one who knew better than to laugh.

By the end of his first day, Shareef was too tired and sore to eat, and begged only to be put to bed, or drowned to be put out of his misery. While the rest of the crew had taken care of themselves, it was Soames who took the young powder monkey literally beneath one arm, and walked him down the companionway ladder into the crew's quarters, and into a hammock all his own. Soames himself had warned the crew off from simply tying the hammock, and dropping their newest crew member mercifully into the sea. Soames himself had gone to bed with a laugh at that notion. And as the Master of the Gypsy Star made way to his own cabin to rest, he had looked back at Shareef who was still awake, and in spite of his body feeling physically ruined, his bright green eyes still carried warm and steady light.

Usually, ship's Masters were not required to stand watch, but as the night watch approached the first light of morning, Soames heard a familiar set of footsteps, and an even more familiar set of sounds coming from the deck above him. The captain threw on his greatcoat, and leaving his shoes behind, made a quick and quiet step for the main deck.

The sight that met his eyes almost caused him to tumble back down the companionway that led to his own cabin! There, on deck, next to one of the starboard side six pound cannons was Shareef, standing before the muzzle of the canon, practicing with the heavy iron shot. First loading, by letting the iron ball slide down the muzzle of the canon, and then walking around to the rear of the canon, and going through each of the steps to fire it in pantomime, before bringing the muzzle of the canon down again, so the 6 pound cannonball could roll out, and Shareef could begin the ritual one more time.

Soames had watched Shareef for a long while, but was careful to creep back to his own cabin before the change of watch, which was when Shareef replaced the cannonball on the pointed stack of shot which always rested near the gun. Shareef was careful to re-coil all of the ropes, and to set up the gun ready to be fired by its regular crew if it was needed. Then, Soames watched as Shareef slipped below decks again, walking on his own two legs this time, back toward his own hanging bed, and the few minutes of sleep he would get before the next watch sounded on the ship's bell, and he was due to be awake and on duty.

Soames slid silently into his own cabin, and closed the door behind him, this time he was laughing another sort of laugh altogether. 

Taking on the young boy had felt right from the first time he had clapped eyes on the lad. And as he lay down to sleep, Soames bet that before many days passed, most of the people who had laughed at Shareef wouldn't be making fun of him anymore.

For the next two weeks of nights at sea, working on a dark deck, with only the subdued light of a dark lantern and a single cannonball, Shareef practiced until he was nearly exhausted. And each night, just before the change of watch, he would return to his hammock, sleep for barely an hour, and then rise up in the new morning to undertake his regular duties.

The first morning of the third week, Soames slipped out on deck, and stood in the companionway doors, before Shareef could make his silent and secretive return trip.

Once Shareef had replaced his now carefully hand worn cannonball on the stack, the lad was surprised beyond fear to turn and walk directly into Captain Soames!

"Top of the morning to ye, lad!" Soames said in a soft whisper, as he dropped a heavily calloused hand onto Shareef's shoulder.  
Seeing the powder monkey wince, Soames instantly lightened his touch before going on. "Is everything prepared at gun number four?" The captain asked Shareef pointedly.

Since his first day aboard, Shareef had watched and listened carefully, so he knew how the crew talked, both to one another, and more important, to the captain.

"Aye-Aye, Sir!" Shareef replied instantly, managing the best salute he could in the dark, with only the light of the dark lantern between himself and the captain." I was just making fast, after some loading practice, Sir." Shareef reported honestly.

"Now that's the sort of work Captain Soames expects from his crew." The captain replied. "Keep it up, Mister Shareef, and inside a month, you'll be as good or better, I'll wager than the rest of them on gun number four." The captain told the powder monkey.

"I don't mind giving the crew something to laugh about, Captain. But this could be serious work if the life of the ship and their own lives depend on it. I just don't want to let the ship or her crew down, Sir." Shareef added, with an earnest honesty that seem to add another glow to the morning light.

"Well spoken, Mister Shareef." Captain Soames said approvingly. "Captain Soames is never wrong when he signs on a new man. You'll do well, and better than well, at whatever job you want, on this vessel. And what job might that be, by the by, Mister Shareef?"

"I want to learn it all, Captain. I want to do every job I can do aboard ship, and learn it as if I have done it my whole life." Shareef confessed to the master of the Gypsy Star.

By this time, Soames' expression was a wide smile, which look slightly spooky in the diminished light of the dark lantern.

"The first time I saw you, I knew you wouldn't stay a powder monkey for very long, and so you shouldn't." Captain Soames replied jovially. "But seeing as how we already have a captain for this voyage at least, what would be your second choice of job?" Soames asked Shareef seriously.

"Well, I've heard it said that the best way to know any group of men, is to know what they eat." Shareef began slowly, explaining himself carefully to the ship's captain. "Perhaps when I'm not needed as a powder monkey, I could go to work helping out in the galley. I used to cook with my mother all the time in the kitchen. So I learned to be quick, and be careful with sharp blades." Shareef explained further.

"An admirable skill for anyone who goes upon the sea, Mister Shareef." Captain Soames replied. "Off you go to bed now, and you may sleep until the forenoon watch. When you wake up again, we'll talk to Gray Peter, and see if he wants some help in the galley." Soames told Shareef in the form of an order.

The delighted smile which spread across Shareef's face was almost as bright as the blue color peeking in to the eastern sky.  
"Yes sir! Right away sir! Thank you sir!" Shareef told Captain Soames.

That's a bright lad now." Captain Soames replied. "Dismissed, Mister Shareef, and I'll have you well rested if you please when we talk to Gray Peter." Captain Soames added gruffly.

Shareef had long since forgotten how tired he was, as he stood on the deck opposite his Captain. And when the young powder monkey moved toward his hammock down below, he seemed to float, like a cork tossed into the sea, rather than making a running jump at the foredeck hatch which was closest to his hanging bed.

"Oh Shareef!" Cici exclaimed, that's a wonderful story. It's just what we need for the services." Cici remarked hopefully.

"I have many more stories like that about Captain Soames." Shareef replied. "He could be a very demanding taskmaster, but when you did a good job, or did something he admired, he could be generous and fair-minded as well." Shareef remarked with a warm smile, as he remembered the man whom he called both Captain and friend.

Before Shareef could start another story, Cici put up her quill when there came a solid, kicking knock on the heavy wooden door.  
"Now who in the world could that be?" Felice wondered aloud. "I left specific instructions that we were not to be disturbed." Said the Enripsa healer with an obvious note of annoyance in her voice.  
"Let me get rid of them." Felicity volunteered. "It's a fine time to be interrupted! I'll give them a piece of my mind!" Felicity fumed.

She flew quickly skyward from her place in the tight circle that the group had formed to support Shareef. And by the time she reached the massive pull ring on the heavy door, Felicity was a flying mass of indignation.

Shibu watched over his shoulder for a moment, as the diminutive Enripsa took hold of the huge iron ring almost three times as big around as she was, and pulled on it persistently, with the strength born of her temper.

The door to which the ring was attached by an iron shackle was superbly well-balanced, and would've opened just as well, and just as quickly under the touch of two determined fingers, as it did under Felicity's temper.

As soon as it was open enough for her to step through, Felicity tried pushing her way past the unwelcome visitor.

"Now see here!" Felicity began truculently. "This happens to be a private family gathering for Sir Shibu." Felicity virtually snarled at whoever had been unfortunate enough to be on the other side of the door. Shibu had to let loose a slight chuckle, knowing full well that not even the King might escape Felicity's temper unscathed.

"Stand aside! "A thick and familiar voice snarled right back at the female. "I bring orders direct from the Throne!"

The last word in the somewhat muffled conversation caught the attention of everyone in the small room. Shibu was the first one up and out of his place in a circle of blue light, which was matched by another facing the inside of the door, where Felicity would not see it. But with her attention distracted, Shibu supposed it was no real worry. He was across the room before Shareef's eyes could follow him, and Shareef watched in open mouth amazement as Shibu took hold of the thick door and gave it a shove to one side, opening it as if it weighed no more than Felicity.

"Hey Theo!" Shibu said with a jovial wave and a broad smile to greet his friend, as Shibu scooped up Felicity just as he had the door, and literally put the smaller Enripsa behind him without any trace of physical effort as he greeted his friend.

"We've been looking for you, Shibu. Or maybe I should say Sir Shibu, more correctly." Theo said, in a much less official tone, as he matched Shibu smile with one of his own.

"You want to come in and sit down?" Shibu asked Theo warmly, treating the King's most senior guard more like a brother and old friend than a retainer of the Royal Palace.

The thought made Theo smile for just a moment, and Shibu could see the temptation in Theo's eyes for about the same length of time. "I'd take you up on that, under normal conditions. Shibu, but right now, the King wants to get every one who's anyone corralled together for the celebrations tonight. King Louis is making a grand speech, and almost the first thing he said was that he wanted you there, on the platform, beside him." Theo told Shibu in a quiet but slightly more official tone.

The pronouncement from the officer of the Royal guard brought a collective gasp from everyone who had overheard Theo's orders within the small room.

"My stars!" Felice exclaimed. "My Shibu, alongside the King?"

"And in public, during the Royal proclamation." Theo added, appreciating the gravity of the occasion. "The rest of the family, is invited of course, and will have seats on the platform as well." Theo told the entire room, now that everyone knew. "That's why we've been looking for all of you,for some while now." Theo explained further. 

"His Majesty wanted to give you all the time you might wish to have to dress for the occasion." The Captain of the Guard explained. "He knows that while you don't have to put on airs for him, he thought that the people of Bonta might enjoy seeing all of you together, and looking your very best in the bargain."

Suddenly, a mutual squeeze of panic seemed to flow through everyone. It sent an icy finger of responsibility streaking down every spine in the small room.

"How long do we have, Theo?" Cici wanted to know.

"Well you had the better part of two hours, but now the best we can probably do is to give you half of that. The publicly announced celebration begins in one hour, directly in front of the main gate." Theo told them plainly. "You are to have an honor guard escort throughout the celebrations and ceremonies. My detachment will come get all of you in as much around one hour as we can manage." Theo told the group.

Still blocked behind Shibu, Felicity let out a small panicked squeal, her body wavering as she threatened to drop to the floor. "We've got to hurry!" Felicity squeaked. "Whatever will we wear?" She said, nearly fainting dead away with anxiety.

"Calm down everyone." Shibu said evenly and quietly above the suddenly rising sense of absolute panic. "This is where we split up again. Girls help the girls dress, and boys do the same. I'll help Shareef get ready, as I already have my formal uniform." Shibu told the others calmly.

For a moment, everyone was still in the room, as a sense of calm and purpose was restored.

"When everyone is ready, we'll meet together just outside of the keep, where the Royal guard usually waits for ceremonies to begin." Shibu added, speaking with calm authority. "We'll see you in an hour, Mom." Shibu added, as he stood back from the door, leaving Felicity to face Theo for just a moment.

"Do excuse us, Captain. But you know how much we ladies have to do to get ready for these formal affairs." Felicity told him, managing to keep a civil and polite tongue as she spoke. "I hope you won't think us rude, if we simply run away now, and get ourselves ready.”

"Not in the least ma'am." Theo replied with a nod of his head, and a brisk step to one side, in order to allow the ladies in the group to exit.

Further back behind the door, while Felicity was practicing her etiquette, Shibu reached out and took a firm grip on Shareef's somewhat rougher hand.

"Sorry to have to do this without any explanation, brother." Shibu whispered urgently. "But this constitutes a family emergency."

Before Shareef could respond, and practically before he could think, Shibu made a slight circle with his index finger as he held Shareef's hand, and a familiar circle of blue light appeared before both of them. Shibu was already diving into it with a swift springing motion, and pulling Shareef along for the ride!


	20. Investiture

As the brace of Eliotropes dropped through another circle of blue light, into their familiar tower rooms, Shibu paused to help Shareef balance himself and maintain his footing.

"Brother mine, what was that? It is miraculous!" Shareef exclaimed with a mixture of childlike wonder and curiosity in his voice.

Shibu was already moving toward the closet from which Shareef had taken his spare set of silks. In the corner closet, there was a plain looking white paper box. Shibu picked it up, and deftly slid the bottom of the box into the upturn top, so the contents of the box were visible through some thin tissue paper.

"The portals through which we travel are the major heritage of the Eliotropes." Shibu explained calmly, as he never stop moving to undress himself, and instead to put on the crisp white uniform laced with gold and silver braid. It was the traditional uniform to be worn by a knight between the time of his passing the trials, and his investiture.

Shibu had tried on the traditional uniform the day that the box was given to him, but he found the heavy, dense wool of the uniform coat and pants to be so confining that the uniform felt more like a suit of heavy plate armor meant to confine him, rather than to help him fight. But this time, he had to wear it, as the traditions of Bonta demanded.

Shareef's stunned questions stopped for a moment, as he took in the fine sight of Shibu, clad only in his familiar hat, as he lifted the heavy and cumbersome uniform coat from the box now placed on the floor at his feet.

In spite of their shared moments atop The Observation Tower, and the wonderfully comfortable nights Shareef had passed curled up in easy comfort with Shibu, Shareef had never paused to look in detail at the sleek and statuesque figure Shibu presented. Now, pressed closer together both by fleeting moments of time and the narrow space in front of the room's closet, Shareef's soft green eyes were filled with Shibu alone, and neither his mind, nor his heart would allow Shareef to look away.

Shareef felt his chest go tight, and his mouth go dry as he took in the sight of his brother. For his shorter size, Shibu's upper body wasn't just larger because of his exceptional muscular development. Shibu shoulders were broad, and his arms matched the stacked strength of his shoulders. Shibu's form had been sculpted by the bow that was the center of his life as a Ranger. Shibu's upper body flowed with a marvelous, rippling strength as he moved. Even as he stood perfectly still, trying to get used to the scratchy sensation of the white tunic, Shareef could see and feel the power of the torso only partially hidden under the white ceremonial jacket. Shareef could see its gold buttons straining in spite of the heavy wool as they fastened stubbornly across Shibu's chest. 

But it was the sight of Shibu's long, lean, and even more well muscled legs that nearly made the room so small that Shareef feared for a moment that he might faint dead away, for lack of being able to breathe as he looked at Shibu.

During his days convalescing in the hospital following his rescue, Shareef had no constant activity to occupy his mind. Very quickly, he turned to listening in secret to the conversations of those refugees from the storm who shared the beds near to his own. For hours on end, ordinary citizens chattered without let up about one person.

Shibu.

Shibu the ball player.

Shibu the Archer, become Ranger, and the first commoner to be ennobled so that he could become a knight of the realm.

And Shibu, the maker of potions, who gave away medicines to those most in need without thinking of himself.

But mostly, Shareef had listened to the endless chatter of children as they talked endlessly about Shibu the famous kicker, who could score a goal anytime he wanted from anywhere on the field, and no one anywhere could stop him.

At first, Shareef attributed most of the outlandish claims to the source. Children always added some make believe to what they thought they knew or experienced. While the consistency of the talk had left little doubt in Shareef's mind that Shibu was a fine and practiced athlete with some extraordinary skills, Shareef discounted some childish claims that made the magnificent Shibu out to be some sort of miracle.  
Now, all at once, Shareef realized that he might well owe an apology to the young ones whose conversations he had overheard.

Shibu's legs made his remarkable upper body seem almost underdeveloped by comparison. By height, Shareef was a half a head taller than his brother, and until this moment, he had put the power renowned to be in Shibu's legs down to the fact that shorter limbs more heavily muscled always seems stronger at first glance.

Shibu's legs seemed to be sculpted out of the same bronze which enriched his beautifully unblemished skin. Shibu's thighs were each denser than Shareef's torso. The bronze muscles seemed to flow down his legs to the knees, where they spilled out again into a sleek taper of muscles that formed into a heavy ball in each of Shibu's calves. 

Just looking at and watching the easy flow of strength even as Shibu stood nearly perfectly still made it difficult for Shareef to breathe. In his own mind, Shareef's stuttering thoughts reminded him that with only one other exception, he had never seen anything more handsome in his entire life.

Shareef's momentary sight and insight into his breathtaking brother was interrupted slightly as Shibu slid both legs into the dark blue woolen pants which were the other half of the traditional uniform for a Bontarian knight-in-waiting.

Standing nearby, watching something that would surpass any ceremony there could ever be, Shareef felt both inadequate, and worse yet, confused.

As Shibu finished putting on what he considered to be his prison garb, is fine gentle blue eyes saw the change in light from Shareef's green eyes.

"Go ahead brother, ask me anything. But my answers will have to be short for now, as we have so very little time." Shibu told Shareef sympathetically.

"Shibu, Cici is right, you are amazing.” Shareef told Shibu quietly, forcing the words of his heart thru a narrow, dry throat which suddenly seemed to be packed with the sand of his distant homeland.   
Shareef swallowed as best he could, and he pressed on, inspired by the sight of Shibu before his eyes. "I love you, Shibu. Absolutely without limitation or condition. I have been yours completely ever since the first time I looked into your gentle eyes, on those cold, dangerous rocks of the shoals." Shareef confessed quietly but seriously to Shibu.

Shibu stopped what he was doing, which was principally trying without success to fasten the small gold buttons on his uniform collar.  
Shibu stepped closer to Shareef, so that the two of them were less then two hands apart as Shareef fastened Shibu's golden tunic buttons. Shareef smiled gently at his Brother as Shareef managed to fasten the smallest and most annoying of them all, Shibu's collar button.

When Shareef was done, Shibu looked absolutely perfect, as if the annoying uniform had been painted on him, rather than merely being worn. Shibu reached up suddenly, grabbing Shareef's wrists gently at first, to stop Shareef from fidgeting over him. It was then that Shibu noticed Shareef's fingers were trembling.

Shibu relaxed his grip, and let Shareef's hands slide willingly into his own. They faced each other in a moment absolutely their own in the midst of the rush of events around them.

"I feel the same way about you, Shareef." Shibu confessed quietly. Shibu continued. "There's nothing I will ever hold back from you, nothing I will not share with you, and no secret in the entire universe which I know which I would not tell you. I trust you and I love you completely and absolutely." Shibu told Shareef quietly, in a steady smooth voice that was filled with the strength and power of not only Shibu's body, but with the greater strength of his noble heart as well. “Heart and soul, I adore you, Habib.” Shibu said quietly to Shareef.

Hearing the word in his own language was the seal which Shareef had hoped for with all of his being.

“Did I get that right, Shareef?” Shibu asked, his question somewhat out of place as Shareef stood before him, trembling with uncontrollable joy!

“Yes, sweet Shibu, exactly right, mahbubti.” Shareef responded, his own heart soaring like a falcon as he spoke.

“ I want to know and understand everything about you, Shareef. Your people, your language, everything that makes you who you are, so that We can love each other even more.”

“Oh, Shibu, my Brother. If we had but a few minutes more, It would be my time to change the world you know so well.” Shareef told Shibu cryptically. “But let this hour of wonders be filled with one gift at a time. Once the night is our own once again, I will show you wonders beyond all the books you so treasure, as you have done for me this day.” Shareef told Shibu. “But for now, I would see my gallant Brother done honor for the Knight that is within him. I am content to wait, because I now understand that we share a heart as well as a life together.”

Shareef's response was simply to lean into Shibu gently, and with a gentle tilt of his head, Shareef put his head on Shibu's shoulder,and hugged Shibu to himself gently, until Shareef could feel the wonderful warmth of Shibu's bronze skin, even through the thick scratchy wool tunic and uniform pants Shibu wore.

Time gave up its meaning for both of them, and perhaps hours or days later, both of them became aware of a gentle knock on the main door of Shibu's tower apartment. The intrusion of sound gently broke the kiss between them, and then Shareef backed away slowly, still holding Shibu's wonderfully gentle hands in his own, Shareef could feel Shibu shaking ever so gently. Shareef put one hand each on top of Shibu's wonderfully dense shoulders.

"Calm down, Sir Shibu." Shareef said in a gentle whisper. "Whoever it is, and whatever it is, we can handle it, together."

Shibu's whispered reply was a single word which sent a torrent of warmth flowing through Shareef's body, and causing him to feel instantly refreshed, and prepared for absolutely anything.

"Always." Shibu whispered, as he leaned in to kiss Shareef gently once more, this time in the family tradition, gently on his nose.

Shibu jumped up, feeling more like he was wearing a full set of chain mail under a suit of the guards full, ceremonial plate armor. Shareef took Shibu round the shoulders gently and helped him to stand steady.  
Once Shibu was on his feet, Shareef made sure to be standing at Shibu's side, to be sure his brother held steady.

“Come in, Mom!” Shibu called out casually, as Shibu and Shareef stood side-by side, each helping to support the other.

"Hello boys, are you-" Felice was brought up short in her question by the answer that met her eyes.

"Oh Shibu!" Felice practically gushed. "Just look at you! Now I finally believe that my boy is going to become a Knight of the Realm." Felice said, not bothering to hide a mother's pride in her son.

"And look at you, Shareef. It's as if Shibu's silks fit you as well as they do him. I was worried, because you are slightly taller."

"Shibu?" Felice asked.

"Yes Mom?" Her black haired boy answered.

"While we have a moment, dearest. Why don't you show your brother our own special way of freshening up. It's a warm night out, and if the celebrations go on as long as I think they might, Shareef might be much more comfortable." Felice suggested.

Shibu nodded enthusiastically. "Good idea, mom!"

Shibu only had to gesture slightly to get Shareef to take his hands once again.

"Eliotrope's lesson number two, Shareef." Shibu said, speaking quickly, and stripping away all but the most essential information.

"Eliotropes manipulate an energy called "Wakfu. We can use it and focus it in many ways. Wakfu flows over around and through all living things. Close your eyes, and think of all the energy inside, around, and flowing over your body, like an endless ocean wave, or the sea that goes on forever." Shibu told Shareef quickly.

Shibu's choice of words made imagining such a thing both simple and easy for Shareef, as he had spent hour after hour at the ship's rail, doing nothing more than look out over the sea.

"That's easy for me." Shareef answered quickly. "I've been surrounded by waves ever since I want to remember."

"Good." Shibu replied. "Now, take a bit of that energy flowing over and around you, and let it flow over and through my silks." Shibu directed Shareef. "It might help to think of yourself standing in front of a cool spray of seawater." Shibu added.

Shibu's visual image was all that Shareef needed. Instantly, and as if the energy around him were made of clean, warm water, Shareef felt His Wakfu come up around him like a wonderful warm wave, and wash directly over him, flowing as if part of Shareef's own life's energy was cool, bracing sea spray.

"Shareef, that was absolutely perfect." Shibu said with a note of admiration in his voice. "Now open your eyes, and look."

Shareef did as he was told. But this time, when his green eyes met the warm sympathetic blue of Shibu's eyes, the world seemed to be filled with a benevolent blue energy that coalesced around Shareef in a perfect blue sphere. It lasted only a moment, but Shareef felt as if he had passed several comfortable hours in the most perfect warm bath he could imagine. In just a moment, Shareef seemed completely reinvigorated, and what was more, he felt absolutely clean, from the top of his head to the small spaces between his toes!

Shareef could not help but smile in complete and utter amazement at what Shibu's gentle coaching could accomplish.

"There's another nice benefit." Shibu said quietly. "Feel my silks now." Shibu told Shareef.

Shareef took two fingers, and ran them gently down the belt of the red and silver silks that he was wearing. The material was not only renewed and clean of any stain or trace of exertion, the silks were now airy and cool, just the thing Shareef needed most to sustain him on a warm night filled with pomp and ceremony!

Shareef could only gasp, as he was completely overtaken with surprise once again for the second time in barely an hour.

There was a familiar, gentle and loving smile on Felice's cherubic face in reaction to Shareef's amazement.

"You'll get used to that kind of thing, with your brother around, Shareef dear." Felice told him gently, mostly to keep Shareef from passing out where he stood. "But you have to remember, dear heart, that not everyone in the kingdom knows or understands what the two of you will be able to do, especially once you do some training together." Felice advised Shareef gently.

Shareef was as fast a learner as Shibu had proven himself to be.  
"That's understandable." Shareef replied immediately. "There are many people who would seek this energy, and make of it a weapon to control others."

"That's exactly right, Shareef dear. So the things that Shibu can do, and the things you will soon be able to do as well are sort of family secrets, if you understand." Felice told Shareef with a gentle embrace.

"I understand, Mother." Shareef replied.

"The only one who knows about your brother, and about you is Master Chang." Felice continued. "He was the one who taught Shibu most of what he knows, and he will be your teacher too."

"I can see I have so much to learn." Shareef replied. "But for now, let us blend our energies together to get us through this night." Shareef told both Shibu and Felice.

"Amen to that, boys." Felice replied, betraying a slight note of anxiety. "I usually know what King Louis has planned for this sort of ceremony." Felice told her sons. "But this time, I must confess that I have no idea what's coming. No reason to be nervous, Shareef. King Louis is as wonderful a man as he is a regal and proper King. He's practically become grandfather and godfather to Shibu, and the rest of us all together." Felice explained briefly.

"Just relax, be yourself, and I'm sure King Louis will like you as much as we do, Shareef-Al-Azim." Shibu told his brother easily.

"Everyone ready?" Shibu asked at last. "Say, where's Cici anyway?" Shibu asked when he noticed one familiar face in the group was missing.

"She was posted to the Cra detachment for the beginning of tonight's celebrations at the last minute." Felice spoke up. "She should be joining us on the platform immediately after the opening ceremonies, when the archers send up the first volley of skyrockets."  
"There's only one thing that worries me." Shibu confessed quietly.  
"Why dear, whatever could that be on a night like this?" Felice wanted to know.

"I hope all the vendors have enough food." Shibu confessed. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I wish we had time to get something to eat."

Felice broke out into a rolling laugh that lasted until she had tears running down her cheeks!

"That's our Sea Dragon!" Felice responded with a huge grin. "Always wondering about the most important things first." Felice told the boys. "Shareef, after we're done here tonight, remind me to tell you about the party we gave Shibu for his first birthday. He's been eating like the whole Royal Guard ever since." Felice told Shareef with gentle humor.

"That may be, mother. But look how well he's turned out. It makes me want to eat just like he does!"

This time, Felice practically rolled over in midair, convulsed with laughter, and it took a gentle touch from both Shibu and Shareef to put her back on an even keel, so that she could fly properly again.

"We'll take care of that as the evening goes on, I promise." Felice replied gently. "For now, come on boys, it's time to face a good deal more than good food, unfortunately enough."

So saying, Felice dropped one hand to Shibu shoulder, and the other to Shareef's shoulder, and gently steered both of her boys out of the tower room, down the circular staircase, and into the underground tunnel which led toward the castle keep gate, and the impending celebrations.

Felice and her two boys knew the way without having to be told. Since the precincts of Bonta Castle had become like a second home to the entire family.

The long tunnel finally broke through into a current of gentle warm air, and light provided by freestanding sconces made of iron, each one supporting an old-fashioned torch.

No sooner had the trio had the chance to draw in a breath of the warm night air, then they were approached by a familiar figure, who carried a pike twice as long as he was tall.

"Good evening Sir Shibu!" Theo said with a smile, and a practiced bow. "As usual, even on festive occasions, you always seem to show up exactly when we need you most." Theo told him in jest.

"Well we wanted to be certain that he looked his best for the occasion, Captain Theo." Felice replied, returning Theo's bow with a polite midair curtsy. "Now where do you need us to be, my friend?" Shibu asked.

"Well, Sir Shibu, tonight I would say that the entire city is yours, and give you leave to be wherever you wish. But protocol demands that before his Majesty arrives, you should be seated in the front row, with you taking the chair on the right-hand side of the King's seat, and your family to the left." Theo informed them cordially. "Be sure to make yourselves comfortable, because once you're seated, no one is supposed to move until after the King has finished speaking." Theo added. "You'll find staff from the kitchens passing among the seats there with trays of food and drink. Please enjoy yourselves, but it's bad form to be eating once the King starts to speak."

Shibu knew courtly etiquette now, almost as well as he knew his own skill with the bow. There were a number of other traditions involving royal speech as well. Including that of complete silence unless the King himself specifically asked someone to speak, and after that no one could speak without royal permission until his speech was concluded.

"We're all set, Theo. Thanks for making me feel so comfortable on a night like this." Shibu told Theo as the two of them clasped hands and shared a friendly hug. It was the traditional fraternal greeting among the guards of Bonta Castle, and it was another point of etiquette which Shibu had learned without having to be instructed. 

As Shibu and Theo separated, Shareef and Felice were already climbing the wide wooden staircase that divided the Royal box into two sections. Felice fluttered daintily into the unique seat padded in blue and purple velvet. It was the seat nearest the throne on the left-hand side. Shareef had asked no questions about his own presence, understanding that between Shibu and Felice, nothing whatever could go wrong.

Shibu's family members were barely seated, before a steady column of people began to make their way up the same wooden steps, passing to the left side, or to the right side as dictated by their rank at court. This much Shareef could recognize without being told, as most of the Lords and Ladies passed to the left to be seated in rose above, while other courtiers pass to the right, and took seats according to their rank, and the etiquette do their companionship. Ladies were given first choice of seats by gentlemen of any rank inside the court.

Shibu brightened for a moment as he spied Felicity walking slowly up the stairs on the arm of one of the footman who was normally stationed in the throne room itself.

Shibu had not seen Felicity since the group split up inside the small room in the castle keep hospital. Shibu took up a polite second look at Felicity, who smiled warmly at him and nodded as she and her escort passed on by, headed for the upper ranks of the right-hand side. Shibu found his eyes drawn to Felicity's unique dress, a uniquely Enripsa creation formed of sheer lace and flatteringly placed carved pieces of fine crystal. Shibu had seen the dress in books before, but had never seen a real one until this moment.

Felicity was sending Shibu another message, one as clear and flattering as the polished radiance of the crystal panels in her dress. It was Enripsa tradition that crystal dresses were worn for high formal occasions, the highest of which was a wedding. Felicity had elected to send her message while keeping tradition, while she managed to draw the gaze of everyone in the Royal Box.

Once the line of guests had folded around Felicity, blocking her from Shibu sight,Shibu seemed to settle down a bit as the Royal box filled with increasingly familiar and friendly faces, every one of which seem to acknowledge him with a smile, a nod, and even the occasional tip of the traditional feathered hats worn by knights on occasion such as these.

One such hat, and the familiar face below it step forward from the crowd, filling Shibu's eyes with both a pleasant smile, and a familiar courtly bow.

"I say, Sir Shibu!" Said a familiar figure wearing a spotless white tunic with gold trim, and bright red pants made even more distinctive by blue stripes which flowed over each hip.  
Shibu immediately brightened, smiling as if he might've found another brother within the sizable crowd.

"Welcome Sir Reginald!" Shibu said, as his reflexes began to stand him up for the required bow. But before he could rise, the distinctive tall man wearing the formal sword and the black eye patch put a friendly hand on Shibu shoulder. "Easy my lad, easy." Sir Reginald said with quiet confidence. "Brothers in arms don't need such formalities. And after tonight, I shall be very proud to count myself among that number." Sir Reginald said with good grace and heartfelt sentiment.

Shibu could feel himself blush.

Sir Reginald was among the last of the original knights of Bonta. Sir Reginald and his wife had been kind to Shibu on his very first afternoon in Bonta, and their meeting had set a new course for Shibu's entire life.

"I have you to thank for all that's happened, Sir Reginald." Shibu replied, his voice cracking slightly as he spoke. "I could never thank you enough in a thousand years for all you've done for myself and my family."

"You're quite welcome, Sir Shibu." Sir Reginald replied, his own voice dropping from boisterous to quiet as he spoke to Shibu. "Myself, and my lady wife mark the day you arrived as one of the finest days Bonta will ever know, right alongside this very day." Sir Reginald replied, taking the opportunity to punctuate his sentiments with the bow directed at Shibu.

"As for what we have done for you, such things brothers do, Sir Shibu. Nobility is not born, it is made of our actions. Yours is a genuine nobility which does all Bonta proud. I shall be honored to stand with you tonight, and always."

Sitting next to Shibu, Felice began to sniffle softly, and was promptly offered a fine lace handkerchief, pulled from the sleeve of Sir Reginald's white tunic.

"There there, Lady Felice. You should be honored alongside your son, for having done such a fine job in raising him so nobly." Sir Reginald told Shibu's mother warmly. "All of Bonta has you to thank for our gallant Shibu and his fine and noble heart."

"Sir Reginald, no speech, even one from the King himself could make my heart feel more gentle and regal toward you, in gratitude for all you have done to help my son." Felice replied. "As far as I am concerned, yourself and Lady Grace are as much a part of our family as Shibu himself." Felice replied, speaking from her heart as she gently wiped tears from her eyes and from her cheeks.

"That, my Lady Felice, is the greatest honor I have ever been accorded, along with the heart of Lady Grace." Sir Reginald replied, as Felice returned his handkerchief, and Reginald tucked it back into his sleeve with a flourish of lace.

"Be of good cheer, one and all, and I will see you after the ceremony, and on the morrow, then we shall find ourselves working together once again for Bonta." Sir Reginald told Felice and Shibu.

Sir Reginald turned gracefully and ascended the stairs, passing to his own seat on the left-hand side one row of seats above and behind Shibu and his family, where the rest of Bonta's Knights were traditionally seated during an address by the King.

After he was gone, Shareef looked over at Shibu from the other side of Felice, his expression disbelieving and his eyes wide as he spoke.

"Everything I've heard about you is true, my brother." Shareef told Shibu quietly. "To have the friendship and brotherhood of men like that is to have the treasure of a lifetime."

Shareef's wide-eyed amazement combined with his complement made Shibu blush almost as red as the silks that Shareef was wearing.

But before Shibu could reply, any chance of being heard was drowned out by arising fanfare of trumpets, which heralded the arrival of the King himself!


	21. Sir Shibu

The few people who remained standing, jostled trying to find seats,and took the closest ones they fell into. Theo, who was only a few paces away from his assigned position suddenly lurched through space to get back to where he belonged, and he instantly stood ramrod straight, as if to challenge the long pike he was holding to see who could be straighter.

As a second sound of the trumpets died away, it fell to Theo to make the announcement for which everyone in the Royal box had waited.

"Announcing King Louis, the Fourth. King of Bonta, and sovereign of all the lands and realms appertaining thereto." Theo intoned seriously for all to hear.

At the end of the announcement, two more of the great doors which opened onto the courtyard were pulled to one side by a pair of royal guards, who station it obviously was to open them when needed.  
Shibu felt a slight touch of nervous energy fly away from him, as Shibu caught sight of the King. The elderly white haired monarch was more to Shibu than a ruler by divine right. Shibu and King Louis had found kindred spirits each and the other, from the very first time Shibu cured the King's persistent cough with one of his mother's healing potions. Ever since Felice had become part of the daily life of Bonta Castle, the king had taken a special interest in her, recalling their first meeting when both were very young, and Bonta was a castle under siege. For Shibu, Louis had become a mixture of mentor, Elder, and very nearly grandfather in his own case.

Shibu had not seen the King in almost a week, although Felice had seen him every day as the mysterious and malevolent storm seemed to spend all its fury on the white city.

The King stepped across the short grass with the spry spring in his step that gave Shibu a welcome indicator as to both the Kings health, and to his mood. Sitting next to him, Shibu also noticed his mother brighten considerably, and sit farther forward in a special chair which was understood to be hers alone. Shibu's pleasure and relief doubled as he saw his mother smiled broadly, and put forth a wave of her hand as Louis made a point of walking directly beside her along the left side of the Royal box. Shibu was close enough to see the elderly monarch's pure blue eyes shimmer like a pair of sapphires as the King saw both Shibu and Felice.

Shareef was not so focused on the King. He meant no disrespect to the Royal personage, but the fact remained that the two of them had never been introduced. So while Shareef appreciated the up close glimpse of the nature of the King below the crown, Shareef found himself more interested in the movements of another pair of royal guards, who were quick and practiced at unfolding a short staircase, which appeared out of the bottom of the unique two-piece dias, that was quickly assembled before the King as he approached it at a slower more measured pace. By the time his feet touched the unfolded wooden steps, there was a platform in front of which the king could stand, and also place a copy of the speech, which Shareef noticed he carried partly folded, and partly rolled in one hand as he walked up the stairs, and laid it out in front of him before beginning to speak.

"Good evening to the Lords and Ladies of the court, to the assembled staff of our fine Castle, and mostly to yourselves, the fine, brave, and enduring people of our beautiful white city.

Fellow Bontarians, our kingdom has weathered the passage of a terrible tempest, which has done damage throughout the entire realm of Bonta, but most especially to our white city, and the capitol of our realm." King Louis began, speaking in a voice of surprising clarity and strength for one of his advancing years.

"I regret to inform you, that some lives among our number have been taken by this tragic storm. Others have been severely wounded or otherwise injured by high winds, and debris blown through the air by the evil storm, which sat over our kingdom for three nights, and two days. A number of people have also been rescued from a shipwreck at sea, and will for the moment be invited to make new homes, and new lives for themselves in Bonta should they so desire."

King Louis paused, to gently turn the first page of his text, while the people of Bonta applauded politely, while others softly whistled their approval of the news from their King that the storm was finally and truly ended.

King Louis nodded his appreciation to his subjects for their reaction, and drew a deeper breath before continuing to speak.

"Fellow citizens and subjects, I will tell you now that Bonta Castle, our Castle, and your Castle, will remain open in the days to come, as a source of shelter and continued Secours to anyone in need. This edict will remain in effect until every home in the kingdom has been completely repaired, and fully restored to its previous undamaged condition. No one in our kingdom will go without shelter. Neither will they go without food, or without security while I am your King. Thanks be to the warnings of our sages and scientists, we had warning enough to set aside foodstuffs, medicines, and most of all those treasures most important to me, help and protection for all of our subjects."

Once again, King Louis paused to turn pages, draw a deeper breath and continue his speech in a softer, and more familiar tone.

"My friends, we Bontarians know very well what we can accomplish together when we set our minds and ourselves to the task at hand, whatever it may be. I announce to you, in keeping with our tradition, all citizens who volunteer their time and labor to do cooperative work in rebuilding the city shall be not only well fed, but thanks to many seasons of preparedness, and careful frugality, you shall be paid, as well. In this way, no one will want for money to support their families, their friends, and the refugees which have come among us and shall seek to become citizens of our kingdom. Homes and living spaces shall be the first priority of our coordinated working gangs, and all of those who have seen their normal places of work disrupted, or sadly, destroyed, will have ways and means to continue a fair job, and to earn a fair wage while it is done. Which is to say, while it is done by all of us together. For I wish to tell you that I will not sit upon the throne, while there is a single one of my subjects anywhere in our domains whose home requires restoration, rebuilding, or reestablishment. I shall rise from the throne, and not sit upon it again until these domains be fully restored. For I will seek the honor of working beside you as we rebuild and settle things to right. The same has been pledged to me from the core of Knights, and from the Royal guards, whose notable service during these dark days, has once again saved our kingdom."

King Louis paused, this time to clear his throat gently and to level his voice before going on.

"All of the Lords and Ladies of our court have performed exemplary services to the kingdom during these difficult days, and have pledged to continue to do so in the days to come."

Shareef watched with interest as the white haired King gently folded over the pages of his prepared speech, and pushed them up and back slightly, away from himself before he continued to speak without the aid of the text he had prepared.

"All of you who have given of yourselves to help others during this difficult time are heroes and heroines of the first magnitude. And in gratitude, we shall establish an order of medals which shall be awarded to all citizens, regardless of their stations or ranks, for their exemplary service to Bonta. My good and loyal subjects, you have proven yourself Nobles in the truest sense of the word, because you have acted and given beyond yourselves to help others. Therefore, we shall accord special decorations to all those whose service to others has helped to preserve the kingdom we love and cherish together.

But standing here on this warm and storm free night, we realize that among you, there is one in particular who is well known and well liked by the citizenry as a whole."

King Louis paused in his extemporaneous remarks, long enough to turn slightly from where he was standing, looking to the seat to the right of the empty throne which adorned the very front row of the Royal box.  
As King Louis looked in the direction, Felice slid a warm and gentle hand over the top of Shibu's right hand, and on the other side, Shareef did the same thing, touching Shibu's left-hand and holding it as the King continued.

"He has helped to preserve our kingdom by acts of bravery celebrated in song and story throughout Bonta. His name has become synonymous with fair play in sports, and equal treatment for all people in trouble, and in need of a noble champion. To celebrate this special night of the renewal of Bonta, I have decided to bring forward the ceremony of his knighthood, and to make the ceremony an event not only for our court, but for the whole people of Bonta." King Louis told the assembled crowd.

"Shibu, will you rise, with your fellow knight, and please come forward to be recognized by your peers, and by our people." The King paused once again, and turned, to look expectantly and directly at Shibu, as all but one of the gathered nobles and all of the vast crowd which had streamed in to the castle from the celebrations outside broke into a loud and rippling torrent of applause and happy whistles.

The one figure who did not bother to applaud rose from his place, and after pausing to kiss the hand of his lady Grace, Sir Reginald walked slowly with a ceremonial gait from his appointed station in the Royal box, marching slowly to the right, and down the wooden steps that divided the Royal box, until he stood directly beside Shibu's appointed seat on the right side, next to the throne.

Shibu had read of the ceremony from the time he could open a book, and knew every pace and motion in the ceremony, right down to the cadence of the steps which Shibu and Sir Reginald walked side-by-side, to the middle, front and center of the Royal box, and then out onto the green grass where the small speaking platform had been erected, behind which stood the King.

Side-by-side, and in perfect step, Shibu and Sir Reginald turned a sharp right corner, and then right again in lockstep that brought them together to the same spot a half a dozen steps distant from where the King stood. As the King came out from behind the platform, both Sir Reginald on the right of the King, and Shibu facing the King's left, knelt before the King.

The King bowed gracefully to them both, as both knight and knight-in-waiting dropped their eyes in humility before their sovereign.

"Sir Reginald, Commander of the Order of the Knights of Bonta, your sword, Sir!" King Louis commanded in a clear and strong voice so it could be heard by the entire assembly.

Sir Reginald moved to draw the Golden sword which hung from his wide sash. The Knight commander whose mark of service to his King was a black eye patch, slowly and reverently held the sword up and then out to meet the King's hand.

King Louis took the ceremonial weapon with authority and balance and for a moment, wielded it with a flourish that made the sword seem like his personal weapon. But he ended the flourish by touching the tip of the sword to the ground just in front of the spot where Shibu had knelt before him.

"Squire Shibu of Bonta." The King began, the tone of his voice becoming deeper and much more solemn. "Do you accept induction into the order of the Knights of Bonta, and there by entry into the service of the kingdom, for as long as you shall live?"

Shibu had already memorized every word, and every bit of history in all Bonta about this moment in time. According to tradition, he was free to decline if he chose to do so. But at this moment, there was nothing in the entire World of the Twelve that could stop him from speaking the only word for which his part in the ceremony allowed.

"Yes, your Majesty." Shibu answered in a voice equally loud and clear as the King before him, so it could be heard by everyone in the assembly, and by all those within the sound of his voice who could hear.

"Very well." King Louis replied, this time in a clear and strong voice that carried a slight ripple of emotion as he spoke the response which the ceremony also required of him.

King Louis raised the tip of the Golden sword from the ground before Shibu's knees, and with the light flourish that raised the blade up to his shoulders, King Louis touched Shibu lightly, once on the shoulder, and then lastly upon the crown of his forehead, So as not to ruffle or otherwise disturb the unique hat which was as much a part of Shibu's attire as the white wool coat and blue pants that he wore rather than his familiar red silks.

This done, King Louis brought the point of the sword downward, back to the same spot where the tip had been before Shibu's knees, but this time as the sword moved, King Louis spoke. "Then arise now, and be recognized by your King, and by our kingdom, arise and be recognized, Sir Shibu of Bonta."

Shibu's required response to his very first order as a Knight of the Realm was supposed to be a clear and well-defined statement of "Yes, your Majesty." However, the final words of the traditional ceremony were heard only by the Royal ears, as the assembled Knights, nobles, ladies, and most of the population of the city of Bonta broke into riotous applause,and waves of soft whistles that rose like a gentle breeze to cool the heat of the evening. Together with the stamping of thousands of feet, the sounds melded into one echo and reverberation, which seemed to shake the white castle like another, but altogether different thunderstorm.


	22. Parlay

Amid the joyous reaction from the Bontarian crowd, suddenly another sort of sound was heard, along with a new flash of light.

Standing on the platform beside King Louis both Shibu and Sir Reginald found themselves straining to make out what the new sound and light might mean, as it came not from the land, but from the sea side of Bonta.

Amid the shrill whistling sound that seemed to write itself across the evening sky on a finger of light, most of the crowd's adulation for Shibu was quickly silenced.

But among the onlookers in the Royal Box, there was one who was neither confused, nor frightened by the new and unusual events.  
Shareef instantly knew exactly what this was, and far worse than that, he also knew at once what the signal meant.

Shareef stood up resolutely, turning toward Felice and Lady Grace.  
"Mother! Lady Grace! This way, quickly!"

Shareef turned, and at a quick but calm pace, he led the two ladies toward the broader wooden staircase that divided the Royal Box.

Felice didn't need to stay on the ground, and was soon floating along half a step behind her son, as Shareef took the hand of lady Grace, and helped her down the steps at a quick but gentlemanly walk toward the platform, and Sir Reginald.

It took the second group of three fewer than two dozen steps to unite as one group of half a dozen. As soon as they came together, it was Shareef who spoke, in a calm but serious voice.

"That was a ship's signal rocket." Shareef told the group. "At sea, it usually means that the captain wants a parlay."

One of the first set of eyes to fall on Shareef belonged to King Louis, who was watching not the signal rocket, but the reaction of the crowd gathered for the ceremony.

There was an instinct and a feeling to panic. And King Louis could feel it building on the warm evening air.

"Don't panic!" King Louis called out sternly in a loud voice filled with more order than surprise. "It is a signal rocket from a ship in the bay." The King announced. "For the moment there is no danger. Everyone kindly stay where you are! Royal guards, rally to me!"

Instantly, mostly from small squared off corners around the Royal Box, almost two dozen figures, wearing familiar silver armor, polished to a mirror shine appeared, formed a pointed wedge-shape, and made a fast run directly for the platform!

King Louis took a moment to glance in Shibu's direction.

"Who is this lad, Sir Shibu?" The King asked in a quiet whisper. "He seems familiar somehow."

"King Louis the forth of Bonta, allow me to present my brother, Shareef Al-Azim." Shibu replied directly, coming to the point in as few words as possible under the circumstances. "He's a survivor of the ship that ran aground on the Dragon Tooth Shoals during the storm."

"Then you are a sailor, my lad?" The King asked pointedly, forgetting introductions for the moment.

"Yes sire, and I have seen those rockets before." Shareef explained, copying Shibu style of using as few words as possible to make the point.

Standing near the King, Shareef moved over to Shibu side as both brothers stayed close to the King.

"I vouch for Shareef with my life, and with my heart, your Majesty." Shibu told the King quickly.

King Louis answered with a short nod.

"Very well." The King replied. "What comes next, Shareef?" The King wanted to know.

"There's your answer, Your Majesty." Shareef said, pointing out to sea, where hazy darkness was quickly gathering, and turning into nightfall. From out of the weak remnant of the sunset, the shape of a longboat could be discerned.

"A longboat sire, approaching the shore, and from the look of it, flying a flag of truce."

Standing next to Shareef, Shibu felt a renewed calm, as the voice which spoke out belonged to Theo.

"Guard, stand at ease!" King Louis suddenly ordered sternly.

"Civilians will kindly remain in their seats. The Royal Guard will ensure your security." King Louis called out to the assembled crowd near the Royal Box.

An odd silence fell over the edge of the bay, broken only by the sounds of oars dipping into the water, and then pulling hard for the shore.

The passengers in the long boat could be seen clearly from 20 yards offshore. Eight men in all, six oarsmen, three on a side, a Coxwain, and the last one, the stylishly dressed figure who sported knee length boots, heavy light blue trousers, a saber, and a fine waistcoat finished with a spray of ruffles that looked more like an ocean wave breaking upon the shore. The commanding figure wore a traditional cocked hat atop his head, which crowned a spray of black hair beneath it, and accented the officer's clear blue eyes.

The commanding figure stood unwavering in the prow of the long boat, not so much as the breeze disturbing the lace of his ornate cuffs as the boat heaved slowly toward the shoreline.

The sound of the oars, and the grounding of the boat were the only sounds to be heard for a moment along the seashore.

"Ship oars!" The man in charge of the boat crew barked sternly.

On command, six oars rose from the water, and pointed upward straight overhead, as the bow of the boat pushed its way upward, from the water on to the edge of the sand. Before the boat itself had stopped moving, the ornately dressed officer stepped off of the prow, onto the thin strip of beach, and was already walking in the direction of the platform, where King Louis stood with Shibu, Shareef, Sir Reginald, and Lady Grace.

The stately figure of the officer stopped a respectable distance from the platform, and with a courtly bow and doff of his three pointed hat, the new arrival made himself known.

"A very fine evening to you, your most Royal Majesty King Louis IV of Bonta." The finally dressed figure said as he straightened up again.

"This poor frail figure of a seafaring man before you presents his compliments and respects. I am Commodore Luis Mendoza, Master of the humble vessel Silver Swan. I have the honor to lead a squadron of sixteen ships, all good traders and true, and we come to Bonta seeking Secours, after passage through that most terrible storm." Mendoza announced to the King.

Standing beside his brother, it was Shibu who could both feel and see his brother's fair olive skin break out in a layer of goosebumps, despite the warmth of the evening air.

Shibu would remember that moment forever, because it was the first time he had ever felt fear from Shareef, or seen a spike of dread light his gentle green eyes.

"Sire.." Something made Shareef whisper softly, suddenly afraid from the bottom of his heart. But before he could say another word, the King held up his hand gently before Shibu and Shareef.

"We bid you welcome to Bonta, and to our kingdom, Señor Mendoza. We also extend to you Secours for your vessel or any vessel which sails with you."

Standing next to the King, Shibu could sense that the King's reply was a function of diplomacy, rather than heartfelt sentiment.

"I thank your most Royal Majesty for his noble assistance, and the Secours extended by the great kingdom of Bonta." Commodore Mendoza replied in his turn.

As Shibu listened to the diplomatic conversation, his genuine attention was focused on Shareef, who now stood stock still, next to him, as rigid as a tree of petrified wood.

"No, sire!" Shareef managed to whisper quietly to King Louis.

The King's blue eyes shifted for just a moment toward Shareef, but returned to the figure of Mendoza a moment later.

"Our kingdom is a survivor of the same storm which you have doubtlessly weathered, Commodore. All are welcome in Bonta, provided that they come in peace." The King told Mendoza, speaking a bit more pointedly than before.

"My intentions are nothing except peaceful, Your Majesty. My squadron will anchor offshore, and await the opportunity to use Bonta's shipyards, a service for which we are prepared to pay handsomely." Mendoza replied in an amiable tone.

"Of course, we also have a short list of supplies which we will ask your Majesty to furnish for my ships and crew, until we are all prepared for sea again, and can return to honest trade, from which we will gladly repay your Majesty's legendary generosity and kindness." Mendoza replied.

"Reasonable and humane accommodations can be made for your crews  
while their ships are under repair, Commodore Mendoza. How many men are sailing with your squadron?" King Louis asked, maintaining a diplomatic tone.

"I have the good fortune to be the leader of forty score good men and true, your most Royal Majesty." Mendoza replied evenly. "And naturally, while my squadron lays at anchor off of Bonta, we shall offer yourself and all the good citizens of the splendid white city such humble protection as we may provide."

King Louis listened, and made the short bow which courtly courtesy required.

"We are gathered here tonight to celebrate our deliverance from the storm, and tomorrow, the city and the entire Kingdom shall begin its time of rebuilding." King Louis replied. "We realize your position, and if the fine men of your squadron could lend Bonta a hand, we in return would rebuild such ships as are in need, and refit your squadron as needed." King Louis said evenly. "We hope you find this arrangement both satisfactory and complementary, Commodore Mendoza.

For the remainder of this evening, we would welcome you as one of our guests to our celebrations." King Louis added with a somewhat lighter tone in his voice.

"I thank your noble Majesty endlessly for his concern over my humble ships, and their good crews." Mendoza replied with another courtly bow of gratitude, “And myself and my first officer will most certainly accept your most gracious invitation to this most festive of occasions." Mendoza replied in his most polished voice, and with his most polished manner. "By your leave, your highness, I must see to the delivery of this glad news to my squadron."

"Naturally, Commodore Mendoza. We grant you leave, and if we may be of any further assistance, please do not fear to ask." The King replied.

"If I may impose on your Majesty's generosity slightly, I have among my ship's company, a survivor of the recent storm, who is become a part of my own crew following the loss of his own ship." Commodore Mendoza seemed to mention in passing. "I beg your indulgence that he be invited to this evening's celebrations as well." Captain Mendoza asked, returning for a moment to his best, and most courtly manners.

"Everyone who has survived the passage through the teeth of the storm is welcome here tonight, Commodore Mendoza. It is a celebration of both Thanksgiving, and survival." The King replied formally.

"I cannot thank your Royal Majesty enough for your unbounded generosity and understanding to myself, my squadron, and my crews."

Mendoza made another bow in the King's direction, this time dropping to one knee and doffing his hat before standing once more, and turning back toward the seashore and the longboat which had ferried him to the shore.

"Do you hear that, Mister Gilpin?" Commodore Mendoza made a show oout of calling to the coxwain of the longboat. "You have a Royal Invitation to stay! Isn't that just fine?" Mendoza asked.

"Suits me to a Tee, that does, Commodore." The man said as he turned fully around to address the Officer.

On the platform, next to Shibu, Shareef shuddered, deeply, and he took on a twitching tremor that both Shibu and King Louis could feel between them.

"Is anything the matter, Shareef, my Lad?" King Louis asked gently but urgently.

"Yes your Majesty, I fear there is a great deal wrong here." Shareef replied still trembling profoundly as he spoke.

"I realize that your Majesty has more pleasant duties at tonight's celebrations." Shibu cut in quickly. "However, might I beg a private discussion with your Majesty for both Shareef and myself?" Sir Shibu asked quickly.

"According to Bontarian tradition, you are so entitled as a Knight of Bonta, Sir Shibu." King Louis replied. "Come, both you and Shareef, if you will. I would hear more from both of you, if you please." King Louis continued.

"Certainly your Majesty, at your service." Shibu replied.

But when both his brother, and the King looked toward Shareef, all Shibu's brother could do was to nod, seemingly hypnotized by the sight of the figure who left the tiller of the longboat, and stepped from the boat onto the beach, headed toward the Royal box.

"It is our pleasure to retire for the moment, to take the Council and hear the wishes of Bonta's newest Knight of the Realm." King Louis announced to the assembled crowd in a loud, firm voice which worked to kill the lingering uncertainty of a moment before. "We shall return presently to enjoy the celebrations, along with our subjects."

King Louis finished, and his statement was met by another rousing round of applause from those assembled for the ceremony.

"Sir Reginald, your attendance please." King Louis whispered quickly beneath the rising applause.

"At your command, Sire." Sir Reginald replied, as the group of six took the short flight of steps down from the platform, led by his Majesty the King. 

Almost at once, the set of massive doors ahead of them was pulled open, by a pair of the Royal guards, and the party strolled quickly into the base of Shibu's tower, and a set of massive doors closed quickly behind the group. The celebration was left behind for the moment, in favor of much darker matters.


	23. Council of War

Once the small group around the king was secure in the large room which formed the base of Shibu's tower, King Louis motioned to a pair of guards, and the great wooden doors at the base of the tower swung closed slowly as the guards pulled them as they left the room.

Only when the guards were gone, and the massive doors closed and guarded behind him did King Louis walk slowly toward the round table which was the center of the room.

Sir Reginald was the first to break the oppressive silence. "What think you, Your Majesty?" The senior night of Bonta asked in a direct and unembroidered way.

"I'm not sure entirely what to think just yet." King Louis replied. "But I have a feeling that trouble may be Commodore Mendoza's major cargo."

"Your Majesty?" Shareef spoke up, somewhat more quietly than usual, although his voice was amplified by the echo within the cavernous room.

King Louis turned a bit, and cast a warm smile at Shareef. "Go on lad, we can speak freely in here, and there's no need for the discipline of the court." King Louis answered.

"I didn't mean to contradict your Majesty in public." Shareef began. "But I must tell you that Commodore Mendoza is not unknown to me, as he was not unknown to Captain Soames, the late master of my former ship." Shareef continued by way of explanation.

"I understand, Shareef. No harm was done, and no offense taken." King Louis responded. "I was bound by treaty to offer Secours and sanctuary to Commodore Mendoza. For the moment, it was the only way to control what might have become a violent situation." The king replied.

"I'm not sure I understand, your Majesty, if you'll pardon my momentary ignorance." Shareef replied. "In many ways, I am still a stranger here, and I regret speaking out of turn." Shareef answered.

"Stuff and nonsense!" King Louis responded. "You are the only one who stepped forward to give me important information at the very moment information was needed. By your actions, you may have averted a very nasty panic, and for that, I'm grateful to you, Shareef."

Shibu stepped over to his brother side, and as the others took seats around the table, Shibu picked up the King's explanation. Shareef could not help but notice that the expression on his brothers face was grim as he spoke.

"If the king had denied help to the Commodore, and his squadron they could a very well decided to come ashore and take what they wanted." Shibu explained slowly and carefully. "Given the size of his squadron, it is easy to believe that he commands nearly 800 crew." Shibu continued.

"With the city damaged by the storm, and our defenses weakened, even with the militia and the Cra detachment, Bonta would find herself fighting a battle that the city and the citizens would almost surely lose." Sir Reginald explained to the group.

"At least by allowing Mendoza's men into the city a few at a time as his ships are repaired and refitted, we'll have control over them, rather than they having control of us." The King responded. "Overall, the situation will require very careful management and diplomacy." The King responded with a nod.

But one at a time, the faces around the table were drawn not to the expression of the King, but to the decidedly dark and dour expression that came slowly over Shibu's face as Bonta's newest knight considered the problem at hand.

"Mendoza's ships now effectively blockade Bonta, if what I've read about naval history is true." Shibu began in a sullen and serious tone. "There's something else we need to consider as well, if your Majesty would allow me."

"That's exactly why you're here lad, I need and want your counsel and advice very much indeed." King Louis answered.

Shibu drew a deep breath before going on, his expression still grave.  
"Once his ships are refitted and re-supplied, at our expense, I see very little that would stop him from essentially taking control of the city from both the land and the sea." Shibu confessed quietly. "The only answer that I can see is that we have to play a double game."

"I believe Shibu has the correct idea, your Majesty." Shareef spoke up. "That's the reason why I spoke out before. Commodore Mendoza is well known in the community of seafaring men as a double dealer, who always uses a marked deck. I have no doubt that the moment he believes the situation to be to his advantage, he will turn on Bonta as he has many other smaller cities over time."

As King Louis listened to the two brothers, Sir Reginald saw the Kings normally bright blue eyes fill with a hazy light.

"Sadly, I believe that both Shibu and Shareef are correct." The King answered at last, his head sunk deeply upon his chest. "The question now becomes how we fight against these men without drawing the kingdom and the rest of the citizens in at the same time." King Louis said, his voice becoming deeper with the gravity of his pronouncements.

"But this time, sire there are no walls between us and the enemy. Only the sea." Sir Reginald said as his mind tried to work out tactics for a new sort of battle.

"Your Majesty?" Shareef asked, this time more gently,to avoid disturbing the ongoing deliberations.

"Yes Shareef?" King Louis answered, sounding slightly tired.

"If it comes to a fight at sea, I've seen more than a few with Captain Soames, when pirates have tried to take our ship. Commodore Mendoza is a pirate too. But his strength lays only in numbers. Mendoza is not a leader, as my Captain was. The men who obey Mendoza do so only for loot. If we can break Commodore Mendoza's hold over them, most of the men who sail with him would leave, and not risk themselves trying to take the city." Shareef explained.

King Louis sat up slightly, and his attitude seemed to perk up as well.

"Reginald, I think Shareef here might be onto something." The King said approvingly to the senior Knight of Bonta.

"Now, the question is how do you get more dirt on a dirty double dealer then he has already on you." Reginald asked seriously.

"Shareef, you understand from experience it seems, the way that the seafaring scoundrels work." King Louis said to Shibu's brother.

"I must freely confess Your Majesty. Captain Soames did from time to time take Letters of Marque against other kingdoms and city states. But in the years that I was aboard, we never took Bontarian ships, nor did the captain ever take up arms against Bonta."

"Thank you for your honesty, Shareef. I am glad that you felt strongly enough to tell me. But I have no doubt as to your loyalty, because I know your brother so well. You two seem to be cut from the same sailcloth, if you know what I mean. And I'm less worried than I would be if the two of you were not here." King Louis of Bonta replied.

Upon hearing this, Shareef bowed before the King, going down on one knee around the edge of the table.

"My loyalty lies as my brother's loyalty lies, completely and always with the city which took me in from a shipwreck, gave me Secours, and gave me a home and a family, your Highness.”

"Stout lad!" Sir Reginald interjected. "One who sounds quite like another lad I met one afternoon, buying a doll, and keeping his promise. I have no doubt of you lad, nor should Bonta, in my humble opinion, sire." Sir Reginald explained.

"Without your warning, and now your help and advice, Bonta might have found herself beaten before the battle began." King Louis told both of the brothers. "But now, thanks to you both, we have a fighting chance again to save our kingdom.”

"One of the philosophers I read about once said that a different fight requires different thinking." Shibu observed. "Now that we have been warned, we have the advantage. But to keep it, we must think differently, and act differently. We may not have much time. May I call in the Cra detachment and brief them about what is going on, your Majesty? I'm sure Cici will have some novel ideas. She can be the most different thinker I know." Shibu asked, wrapping his question in important information.

King Louis nodded his approval. "Now that's one of the best ideas I've heard so far. Let's take that one step further. Reginald, shift change for the guards is in a quarter of an hour. I'll bet you their long boat that Commodore Mendoza will be watching as well. As the guards rotate, take them aside in small groups and tell them to remain clear eyed, and keep watch over Mendoza and his crew, without being too obvious." The king ordered.

"With great pleasure, Sire!" Sir Reginald replied smartly. "The more information we can gather about them, the greater still our advantage will be."

"I hope so." King Louis replied soberly. "For Bonta's sake."

"I don't mean to burden your Majesty at such a time, with my personal problems." Shareef spoke up once again. "But the man who Mendoza brought ashore in the long boat was also a member of Captain Soames crew." Shareef disclosed with a serious tone in his voice.

"Meaning?" King Louis asked pointedly.

"That man, Gilpin and I, we had a fight aboard ship. A sailor's quarrel, nothing more. But Mister Gilpin lost, and was under guard and punishment when our ship ran aground. I had thought him lost, but apparently he was rescued by Commodore Mendoza. Gilpin knows me very well indeed, and as he is a match for the Captain he now serves, he will come after me looking to even the score between us." Shareef told the group. "I should like to ask your Majesty's advice on the matter, as I do not wish to create an incident which might make things more difficult for Bonta."

"Well, if you'll forgive an old man who's known his own share of bullies in his day, I think the best way to take care of Mister Gilpin might just be for you to sort him out on your own, someplace quiet and out of sight." The King advised gently. "When Mister Gilpin gets his just desserts, it may well have to seem like an accident. Would you mind that very much, my lad, or does your honor require something different?" The King asked.

"Your Majesty, I am not a noble, like my fine brother. But I am for you, and I am for Bonta. If Mister Gilpin stands in the way, then Mister Gilpin shall be removed, I promise you." Shareef replied.

"Don't worry, brother." Shibu spoke up with his usual self-confidence. "If this Gilpin goes looking for trouble, will make sure he finds a lot more than he can handle."

"Well spoken Sir Shibu!" Sir Reginald spoke up.

"Indeed!" The King himself interjected. "Let us all see to it that the same can be said for our "guest" Commodore Mendoza and company."

"Bravo, your Majesty!" Sir Reginald interjected. "But as we wish to project a normal atmosphere in Bonta for just now, might I suggest that we return to the celebrations awaiting outside?" Reginald asked quietly.

"Quite so, Sir Reginald. For the moment, we stand best to make things seem normal and correct as the city recovers. "Shibu, Shareef?" The King asked in a quiet aside.

"Yes your Majesty?" Said the brothers together at the same time."

"Call in your sister, and the Cra detachment, in small groups, and let them know what's going on." The King instructed.

"Shibu?" Shareef inquired gently. "You're a part of the celebrations." Shareef observed. "The people will expect to see you there. And let Commodore Mendoza see you there also. Let me go to Cici and the others and make sure that they know what is happening. Our double game must begin the moment we go back through those doors." Shareef told his brother.

Both Eliotropes glanced expectantly at King Louis, who by this time was smiling as his head bobbed lightly up and down again.

"This place will always be safe for us to meet." Shibu told the group in a serious tone. "If Commodore Mendoza, or any of his crew try to get in here, they'll have a bigger problem on their hands than a storm at sea, I promise."

"All right everyone." The King said at last. Everyone ready, steady, and go."

"Open the doors!" Sir Reginald hollered out in a voice that seem to be ten times bigger than he was. Before the echo of his voice had faded within the tower, a pair of the Royal guards were pulling the great wooden doors to one side, opening them so that the King and Sir Reginald could walk out with Shibu at their side, while the crowd roared its approval.

Shareef watched from behind one of the doors, where he had stepped away from the group as the doors opened. His celebrations would come later. For now, Shibu's brother had a more important part to play. He went up on his toes, the way Shibu had taught him, and broke into the Ranger run, loping toward another smaller door on the back side of the tower, out of view of the crush of people gathered for the celebrations. As the applause of the crowd for his brother faded in Shareef's ears, he loped up the beach, curving his run back toward the terraces of the city, where Cici was stationed, waiting to begin the fireworks display that would fill the sky in a few moments, and offer perfect cover for a whispered conversation between them as rockets of another sort lit up the warm night.

Shareef loped down the connecting tunnel toward the castle at speed, as he pushed himself slightly just to see how fast he could go. The connecting tunnel to the castle was deserted, for a change. Rather than being packed from the white stone walls almost to the high, arched ceiling with people seeking shelter from the storm. Shareef was able to cover the distance between the castle atop the hill onto the terraces of Bonta before the first of the skyrockets lit up the night sky with an incandescent finger of red sparkles.

He growled at himself just a bit, as the rocket sailed skyward from one terrace above him. He had taken the wrong set of stairs on the way up, and would have to go another quarter of the way around the terrace to find the longer upward staircase. He didn't know Bonta quite as well as Shibu did, or at least not yet. Silently as he kicked back into his run around the lip of the terrace toward the staircase, he made himself a promise that before the next week was over, he would be able to take any staircase in Bonta blindfolded and backward, if he needed to do so.

His fit of personal pique lasted only long enough for his long strides to propel him up the staircase like one of the rockets launched from the terrace.

The launchers were a simple enough arrangement. Iron tubes set into deep steel bowls of sand, with each course of rockets numbered, they were simply dropped into the tube, and their short fuses were lit all together when a red beam of light reflected from a mirror set into a tower window across the terrace.

Shareef waited for the next flight of fireworks to soar skyward before he used the noise of the bright detonations to mask his voice as he called out to Cici.  
She was in the third relay of her people, passing fire to the fuse lighters via red-hot steel arrowheads heated in a large brazier.  
It would've taken a full broadside of cannons to keep the best of the Cra Ranger's in Bonta from hearing the call of her name, especially from one of her own family.

As wispy balls of blue, white and yellow blossomed high in the sky over Bonta, Cici could let out a short whistle, and another of the Bowman stepped into line to take her place passing fire, and she was free to slide over to Shareef with all the natural grace of a doe eyed fawn.

Cici knelt gently, and took Shareef into a warm but comfortably strong embrace. This also put the two of them close enough to exchange whispers, and Shareef's words came with a tone of urgency that the airborne gaiety of the fireworks could not mask.

"I need to see you right away, Cici. And bring all the other members of the Cra detachment who are not working on the fireworks display." Shareef told her with great economy of word, if not of emotion.

Cici could sense at once that something was gravely wrong. She did not have to ask, for when Shareef saw the expression on the face and in the eyes of his green eyed Cra sister, the question didn't need asking.

"The signal rocket from the bay was from the lead ship of a pirate squadron." Shareef whispered urgently to his new sister.

Shareef was close enough to see Cici's expression change, and the aura of Cici's Wakfu change color. Her face set into a mask of serious concern, Shareef could also see Cici's brilliant green eyes darken slightly, and turn as hard as diamonds.

Shibu had talked about Cici more than he had spoken about himself. Shareef now understood what Shibu had meant about Cici's most fearsome expression. The face and the eyes which went with the Hunter in sight of a kill.

Cici was deadly silent. Her only movement was to raise her tightly clenched right fist. It shot up like one of the skyrockets over Bonta, and stayed there just long enough for the light from the skyrockets to cast her pose in a shadow that every Cra on the terrace could see. Cici lowered her arm quickly, and held it out to Shareef. Shareef clasped Cici's forearm, and was instantly swept upward and onto her shoulders. As the two of them walked away from the lip of the terrace and its decorative ironwork, another figure fell in beside Cici.

The stature and presence of the broad shouldered male Cra made Shareef's heart skip a beat. He was well over 6 feet tall, and his broad shoulders, barrel chest and massive arms made him seem almost as wide as he was tall.

"Shareef, my second officer, Captain Tallon." Cici said, keeping introductions brief. "Captain Tallon, my brother, Shareef." Cici said briefly, completing the required introductions.

The trio slipped quickly down one of the shorter staircases nearby, into a small area of green grass, populated only by a wooden bench.  
As Cici and Tallon took a seat, Shareef slipped off of Cici shoulders, and stood on the back of the bench between the two of them. It was an ideal space for being heard only in whispers.

Cici and Tallon stayed quiet for the moment, as Shareef told them both in as few words as possible of the events on the Bontarian beach so far below. The only visible reaction from the brace of archers came when Shareef whispered to each of them in turn the number of the crew of which Mendoza boasted.

Cici waited, with her hands folded in her lap until Shareef had finished telling them about the tower meeting, the King's decision, and the double game Shibu had envisaged as the only way to prevent open warfare, and possible slaughter for the civilian population of Bonta.

When Shareef was finished at last, he was slightly taken aback at Cici's calm attitude. But the light that had hardened her now steely green eyes still burned brightly as she and Tallon stood up from the bench.

"Tallon, leave two relays of archers to take care of the fireworks." Cici ordered in a quiet voice. "Rotate out the other two relays, and let them know what's going on. Absolutely no one does anything except watch them, without my express permission, understood?" Cici asked as she finished.

"Understood, Cici." Tallon replied with a taciturn economy of words and movement. "If I have to, I'll assign one of us to each one of them." Tallon replied. "They won't be able to buy so much as a beer, unless we know about it the same time they do." Tallon added, as Shareef saw the archer's black gloved hands ball up into massive hammers. "Anyone of them who starts trouble will disappear. I'll see to it myself."

"Go on Tallon, get the others down here. The sooner they know, the stronger we'll be, and the less chance there'll be of something going wrong, unless they start it."

"Yes ma'am. Right away ma'am." Tallon replied, sounding more like one of the castle guards.

Tallon seem to melt away like his own shadow, not even the sound of his footsteps could be heard on the neatly trimmed grass at their feet.

"Where are Shibu and Felice?" Cici asked as soon as Tallon was gone.

"Where they should be. In the Royal box with the other invited guests from the Court." Shareef replied. “Don't worry, with Shibu down there, it's one of the safest places in the entire city right now." Shareef told Cici in another quiet whisper.

That thought made Cici smile, because it wasn't as far from an exaggeration as some of the Bontarians themselves might believe.

"Is there anything more I can do here?" Shareef wanted to know.

"Shibu's idea of a double game is brilliant. But it's also risky." Cici answered after a moment. "I'm sure Felice would feel better, as would I, if you two stayed as close to each other as much as possible." Cici replied quietly. "If something goes wrong, I think the two of you might be the best hope that Bonta has."

Shareef felt his stomach knot. He shared Cici's absolute faith and confidence in Shibu. But for the moment, Shareef was more worried about himself, and someone else.

Shareef excused himself for the moment, and slipped silently back up the short staircase, and over to the lip of the terrace, where he could look down upon the seaside scene far below.  
Shareef knew he had reason to worry when the first figure in the vast crowd that his eyes settled upon was Mister Gilpin.


	24. Double Game

The remainder of the night, and even the speeches that followed Shibu's investiture all past for Shareef in an indistinguishable blur of heat and rising tensions.

Shareef had eyes for only two people in the vast crowd gathered at the Bontarian seaside. The first was Mister Gilpin. But Shareef soon realized that he would pose no threat until the pirate thought the situation was to his own advantage. So over the course of the evening, Shareef found himself more attentively drawn to Commodore Mendoza.

The leader of the pirate squadron was obviously a man of some refinement, as he displayed courtly manners, such as the correct way to bow, and the correct manner of applause when it was quite suitable. His clothes told the tale of a man of wealth and means that befit his station. From the outside at least, Mendoza was the absolute ideal of a perfect seafaring gentleman, who couldn't be impeached for the slightest flaw of deportment or manners.

But Shareef had spent too much time with Captain Soames to be taken in entirely by such appearances and trappings. As Shareef watched him, he came to concentrate on Mendoza, looking mostly for small flickers of expression in the Commodore's long face, and his close set, dark eyes.

A good portion of courtly manners was attentiveness, particularly when the King himself was present. Even though the elderly monarch spoke not another word in public all evening, for the assembled citizens of Bonta, and those represented in the Royal Box, the King's presence brought a genuine importance to the ancient ritual, and to the celebrations which had been ordered by the Crown for the people of Bonta.

But over time as Shareef watched Mendoza, he would notice an odd shift in the Commodore's eyes and facial expression. The first time he saw the subtle change, it was as if a crackle of lightning had rolled down Shareef's spine, and grounded itself right where he was seated, with his legs dangling through the wrought iron railing of the terrace.

Shareef had seen that expression before, on the face of Captain Soames. At first, it seemed innocent enough. The Commodore seemed to be pleasantly looking about at the assembled crowd of dignitaries, the honored guest, and the Nobles of Bonta.  
But as Mendoza's eyes shifted with each one of what seemed to be a series of casual glances, Shareef knew all too well what the commoner was doing.

Mendoza was counting.

Counting towers, and how many spectators there were or might be at every tower window. Because Mendoza knew as few others did, that the same windows, and the conspicuous arrow slits around them might just as easily be filled with archers as with spectators.

Mendoza was also inspecting. Shareef was fairly certain that Mendoza was particularly interested in the condition of the major wall which was set well back from the tide line, and opened up the vista of the seashore to the assembled guests. Mendoza wasn't doing anything as obvious as counting courses of bricks, nor trying to measure thickness. For he did not need or want to do anything so clumsy as to reveal himself and his true intentions.

But Shareef already knew that Mendoza was the sort of man would spend time offshore, with a powerful telescope, doing exactly the same kind of observation while safely at sea, rather than in the home port of his target.

The fireworks, coordinated by the Cra were the highlight of the evening, after Shibu's investiture and his warm remarks to the people. Shibu knew enough to keep these brief and simple, so as not to interfere with the ongoing celebration that swept over the crowds as the fireworks began, and slowly built their way to a crescendo above the main breakwater of Bonta Harbor.

Shareef felt a pang of guilt, that he could not be at Shibu's side on this important, and once-in-a-lifetime occasion.

But somehow Shareef understood that Shibu was not offended, and once Shareef shared his unique intelligence with his brother, his absence from the ceremonies and the celebrations would be understood to have been well worth it.

The sea breeze had died away to the merest whisper of air drifting onshore. This made life for the Cra archers and their fireworks much simpler, and much safer in the bargain. However, the lack of breeze seemed to lock the humidity and warmth of the evening tight against the seashore, where so many people had gathered. So as time wore on, and drink and food flowed through a joyous crowd, while the temperature stayed seasonably warm, the amount of heat generated, mostly by the crowd itself continued to increase. Shareef had slid off the wooden, sandle-like shoes he wore, and could actually feel the heat vapors rising from the assembled throng below, as the people of Bonta enjoyed one of the rare occasions where they could mix on equal terms with the royalty of the court.

Shareef also came to admire King Louis over time. He watched the elderly monarch go through his paces as the hours grew longer. But King Louis never faltered, nor wavered. He would greet every person to approach him with a warm smile, and handshake or hug as appropriate, and even after the initial greetings were done as protocol required, the King always had a moment or two to listen and to hear from everyone he met. Shareef soon realized that the event was as much a marathon for the King, as it was for his brother. While other men of his age might have begged for more frequent breaks, or even relief from the never-ending press of the crowds, King Louis stood his ground, and as Shareef could see from their delighted expressions, every citizen that met the King that evening would have a pleasant memory that would last a lifetime.

There seemed to be another, only slightly smaller vortex of people circulating around Shibu. He was much more outgoing and gregarious in his greetings, taking time to talk to everyone, as he followed the model of the King, while never refusing a handshake, a hug, or a chance to sign some scrap of paper, or more often a uniform shirt worn for booufball. 

More than once, people in the crowd gently tossed a woolly ball toward Shibu. He would take a moment to handle each and every one, balancing them with his feet, bouncing them up and down over and over again on his knees and spinning the ball lightly, and dropping into a one arm hand stand on top of the ball before returning it to its owner with an autograph, and a wonderfully light tap of a kick that set the ball arching back into the crowd, and precisely into the hands of its delighted owner, as the crowd cheered and applauded warmly.

Shareef himself was gloriously happy for Shibu. For Shareef had also seen those moments where his brother seemed to carry far more weight on his shoulders than might seem wise or healthy. Watching Shibu have fun and play to an enthusiastic crowd also helped Shareef's energy to stay high, as his observations once again began to center more and more on Mendoza.

After a couple of hours of food and drink had loosened everyone up, including the spectators in the Royal Box, Shareef was more certain than ever that Mendoza was there not only as a guest of the King, but as a spy for his own much darker ambitions as well.

Shareef could do nothing, or say nothing directly for the moment, in spite of his every impulse to do so. Courtly protocol protected Mendoza as much as it did any citizen of Bonta on this night. So Shareef chose to watch, and to mark time. He knew that the party could not last forever, either for Mendoza, or for Bonta.

It was closer to dawn then to midnight, as the first rays of dawn twilight began to blossom along the seaside horizon that King Louis, seated in the Royal Box, tapped his great staff twice against the stout wooden floor. Shareef was amazed as he heard better than half of the population of the white city instantly fall still and silent.

"People of Bonta, the hour has drawn from late to early, and on this day, after these fine celebrations, we gather at noon, one and all, as Bontarian's to begin the work of rebuilding our white city. Go home now, please, and rest yourselves well, for with the full light of day our work begins. And we shall be there directly alongside all of you to bend our backs, and lend our hands, to make our city and our kingdom a better place to live." King Louis told the assembled crowd, which was still better than half of the entire population of the city.

The multitude responded with applause, the resolute stamping of feet, and a whole choir of bright and energetic whistles that reflected their leaders quiet determination and enthusiasm.  
The crowd was so well mannered, and so gentle that the Royal guards saw no heavy work in shepherding all of the population back from where they had come, out of the main gate, and down toward the bottom of the hill and home.

As the crowd seemed to merrily evaporate, Shareef caught sight of Cici once more. Shareef slipped his sandals on again, and was grinning from ear to ear as he did his best to pad up behind Cici and pounce on her gently.

Naturally, Cici had seen and felt his approach from yards away, and was ready to catch Shareef in midair, before spinning him around gently over her shoulders, so brother and sister could embrace gently, even as the remainder of the detachment formed up to retire from the terrace above the seaside.

"Are you okay, Cici?" Shareef asked gently as he was swept into Cici's strong arms, and saw her eyes betray just a flicker of momentary pain.

"Just a little bit stiff from holding at the ready for so long during the fireworks." Cici replied. "I'll be-"

But Cici never had a chance to finish, as Shareef swung up and over from his position in Cici's arms, flowing upward to her shoulders, while using his legs to grip firmly but gently around Cici's slender waist. This left Shareef's hands free and clear to lay into a firm massage of Cici's back, shoulders and upper arms.

His redheaded Cra sister actually coo'ed very quietly as Shareef's touch literally seemed to melt through her like the warm shower that she had secretly been wishing for only a moment before.

Working her heavy back and shoulder muscles with a warm and energetic touch, Shareef felt any trace of pain that Cici might feel simply melt away into nonexistence. Cici's higher mind struggled for a moment to remember when she had felt anything quite so delicious as Shareef's healing touch.

"Keep that up Shareef, and you'll carry me home across your shoulders in a pair of buckets." Cici whispered to him in boundless gratitude for his gentle sagacity.

"Should I stop?" Shareef inquired playfully as he felt Cici's strong athletic body gather strength once more now that it was free of the momentary pain.

"If you stop, I'm going to have you arrested, and then have myself thrown into the same cell." Cici retorted with a slightly goofy but gentle expression radiating from her face as she looked at her brother.

"Come on Sis." Shareef replied gently. "Tallon can take the detachment. As soon as we can "rescue" my famous brother, I've got quite a bit to tell him, and unfortunately it isn't all good, and most of it cannot wait." Shareef explained in a quiet whisper as he relaxed his legs, and slid back to the ground gently alongside of Cici.

Cici nodded understanding, and shouldered her bow again, before leading the way toward the longer staircase which led down the terrace toward the beach.

Shareef found himself a step or two ahead of Cici coming down the long staircase from the Bonta terraces.  
Cici looked happily at Shareef's excitement, and the Cra Archer smiled broadly.

"Go on Shareef, I won't hold you back. Go and find Shibu. I know that being separated from him tonight was very hard for you to do." Cici told her new brother.

Shareef found himself suddenly so overjoyed that he could barely keep his shoes on his feet as he broke into the familiar Ranger run, and plunged into the remainder of the crowd on the beach, looking up toward the Royal Box for his brother.

Shareef did not need line of sight to know almost exactly where Shibu was standing, still in the midst of a thick crowd of people gathered around him as he signed autographs, and took in every congratulation offered to him with a warm and heartfelt thanks.

Shareef listen to his instincts on the edge of the crowd, and took a slight step sideways, so that his shoulders and upper body could slide into and through the spaces between people in the crowd ahead of him. It took Shareef fewer than a half dozen steps to find himself on the edge of the crowd closest to Shibu.

Shareef was still for just a moment and watched his gregarious brother having fun with the crowd. Everyone who approached Shibu got a warm and familiar greeting, in the form of Shibu's confident smile, and encouraging handshake, a personalized autograph and a few words of encouragement. Shareef watched as most of the people slowly filtered out of the thick circle with stars in their eyes, and broad smiles on their faces. It was a remarkable sight, as was the image of Shibu being himself, and enjoying that as much as his legion of admirers enjoyed it in turn.

In the end, it felt more like an unnecessary intrusion than a necessity for Shareef to thread his way through the last of the people waiting to meet his brother. Shareef waited until Shibu glanced down momentarily to sign yet another shirt for one of the youngest fans in the crowd. When Shibu looked up once again, Shareef was the admirer standing before him.

Shibu smiled gladly at the sight of him, and let out a short but happy yelp as he stepped forward slightly from his place in the center of the crowd, took Shareef warmly in his arms, while each embrace the other.

"Forgive me brother." Shareef told Shibu with a touch of genuine regret. "But it's getting late, or is that early, and both Cici and I need to talk to you before we can head for bed."

This pronouncement from Shareef brought a general rolling sound of disappointment from the many people who still formed a moving circle around Shibu. But Shibu was also the first to smile back at them as he turned to talk to the people, rather than just to turn his back and leave.

"Don't worry everybody." Shibu told them in his familiar and self-confident tone. "I have to get ready for tomorrow, just like the rest of you. And for me, that means good sleep." Shibu told his assembled admirers. "So I'm going to head back up the hill to the castle and get some sleep. And for those of you who didn't get to talk to me tonight, I'm going to be out there at noon, working right beside all of you, and King Louis too. You'll always be welcome to come up and talk to me at any time, just like all my friends." Shibu told the remaining people.

This pronouncement from the hero of the hour brought yet another round of gentle applause, whistles, and here and there, a friendly touch from a few who could reach him, and a gentle backslapping from a few more.

"So I'll see all you guys and girls around noontime, wherever they tell us that we should start in fixing things. Take care, all of you, and sleep well, because tomorrow noon, we all have to work hard together for Bonta. I'll see you then." Shibu finished, and bowed politely to his remaining admirers, and then he allowed Shareef to lead him out of the circle as the two clasped hands for all to see.

"Sorry to interrupt you brother, but there's some things you and the king need to know before noontime comes." Shareef explained, choosing his words both for the gravity and the urgency of the situation he knew.

"Okay Shareef." Shibu replied. "King Louis and the others were headed for the base of our tower after the celebrations were over, so it seems were all headed for the same spot." Shibu reflected.

"That's good." Shareef replied with a few words. "Bad news is best taken with friends."

The two of them snapped quickly and naturally into the Ranger run, and seemed to be vaulting rather than walking toward the base of the familiar tower.

Shareef was surprised to see the massive twin doors of the tower standing open wide, but guarded as the two of them arrived.

Shibu and Shareef took the usual two strides to slow themselves back to a walking pace, and found themselves at home again, stopped as usual in the center of the room near the large table. What made this occasion different was that the King, Sir Reginald, Lady Grace, Cici and Felice now had places around the same table.

"Hello boys." King Louis said, greeting both of them in an affable tone.

Shibu and Shareef both reached for empty chairs around the table, but as Shibu sat down, it was Shareef who remained standing at his place in the ring made of his friends.

"Your Majesty, I must bring you grave news." Shareef began. "I hope you'll forgive my absence from the ceremonies this evening. But when Captain Mendoza appeared, I thought it prudent and a better use of my time to watch over him. What I have found out is not good news, I regret to say."

"Go on Shareef, speak your mind." King Louis replied with great economy of word.

"I am convinced that Captain Mendoza is indeed planning an attack on the city of Bonta." Shareef began, speaking slowly and picking his words carefully for both weight and meaning.

"That has been my instinct from the start, your Majesty. I too have spent time watching Captain Mendoza. And our gentleman friend from the sea is not all he appears to be." The surprising statement came not from Sir Reginald, but from Lady Grace, who was seated at his side around the table. "I'm certain he has designs upon the city, and then perhaps on the entire Kingdom, your Majesty."

"Sir Reginald, your view?" The King asked, being sure to get the opinion of the senior-most knight in his kingdom.

"I must agree with my lady wife, good King." Sir Reginald replied briefly. "For all his airs of nobility and peace, Mendoza did not come here for tea and cakes. He is here, Sire, because he knows that the storm has weakened Bonta, and he also knows that for the moment he has the advantage in both ships at sea, and if need be, manpower on land." Sir Reginald explained.

"Louis, it seems to me that this man Mendoza is nothing but a vulture dressed in feathered finery." Felice spoke up. "He's here because he thinks he can take easy pickings from the people, the city, and your kingdom."

King Louis listened, his face growing darker as the opinions around the table grew darker in turn.

"Cici?" The King asked.

The chief Archer of Bonta's detachment of Cra archers stood to attention at the mention of her name. "Yes your Majesty?"

"If it comes to a fight, what are our chances?" The King asked directly.

"The fifty of us-"Cici began.

"Fifty-one." Shibu interrupted shortly.

Cici smiled slightly before continuing.

"We could probably fend off an initial attack against the walls of the city, your Majesty. Particularly if we use fluid tactics, rather than just trying to line the walls with archers." Cici replied honestly. "But if Mendoza brings any more than one third of his manpower to bear against the city walls, I'm not sure how long we could hold them. Although we could give them a much harder time if they got inside the city." Cici explained. "Hit and run attacks are very effective against what would be a mass target." Cici explained bluntly, sparing no words, and making the stark options simple to understand.

When everyone around the table was done, it was King Louis himself who shook his head, with a dark expression etched into his elderly countenance.

"If we let those beggars in here, the city falls. That's about as brutal as it gets. For the sake of our people, nearly all of whom would be helpless, we cannot allow that to happen." The monarch of Bonta told his assembled advisers. "So Bonta's best, and perhaps her only hope is to find a way to stop those men before they come ashore intent on pillage and plunder." The King added, his strained voice falling a bit more quiet as he spoke.

An oppressive silence fell across the huge oval room which formed the base of Shibu's tower. And in the center of the storm, at the large round table, there was the eye of the storm itself.

"Let me go, sire." Shibu spoke up at last. "I can swim from ship to ship within their fleet, doing as much damage as I might." Shibu explained calmly. "The ship's that don't sink altogether will be badly damaged by flooding, and the crews on the ship's will have more to think about then pillaging Bonta." Shibu continued, justifying the tactics behind his offer.

After Shibu was finished speaking, the heavy silence fell once again around the circle, as everyone understood just exactly what Shibu was offering to do.

King Louis's desperation was such that for a fleeting moment, he was compelled to consider Shibu's offer of self-sacrifice to save the kingdom. But then, the elderly monarch glanced to one side and saw the terror which drained the color from Felice's normally rosey and cherubic cheeks. The King looked away from Felice, and shook his head slowly before speaking once more.

Your a fine brave lad, my gallant Shibu." The King began. "But even at the best of your abilities, I don't think you could manage to put a hole of some kind in every ship in Mendoza's fleet. Sabotaging even half of them would tax your abilities, leaving the other half of Mendoza's horde angry and primed for vengeance. What's more, there is the probability that you might be overtaken, and held prisoner or worse. Faced as we are with what I'm certain is a battle to come, I could not spare you, and moreover, I don't think Bonta can spare you." The King replied.

Shibu sat down again, his arms folded heavily across his chest, and his head down in deep thought.

"If your Majesty will permit?" Lady Grace began.

"Certainly, my lady. Your own valor and skills as a knight of Bonta have earned you the right to speak at this table." The king replied in a lofty tone, reminding all present of the nobility of the third lady within the circle at the table.

"Thank you your highness." Lady Grace was careful to curtsy before going on. "May it please your Majesty, but it seems to me the question might be quite a simple one at last." Lady Grace explained. "Mendoza and his squadron are here because they think us an easy target. But without his men, and their ships, Mendoza's power is broken, as would be his blockade of Bonta. So the question is simple. How does one induce a pirate not to sack a city?"

"We could try simply paying the blighter off, your Majesty." Sir Reginald replied to his wife's logic. “But once we do that, he'll be back here anytime he needs or wants easy money. We would never be rid of him again."

"I quite agree, Sir Reginald." King Louis replied sternly. "Paying off these hooligans, no matter how fine their dress may be, is the worst of all possible answers." The king replied.

"Forgive me sire, but I don't think I've made myself absolutely clear. I wasn't suggesting giving away gold as such to this community of seagoing wolves. But what I do suggest is that a man is much less reluctant to attack a place he considers to be home, your Majesty."

Lady Grace so shocked the group around the table that for a moment no one could speak. But the idea had profound implications which no one had hit upon before.

"What happens if we give the men of Mendoza's squadron a home, and the offer of honest work either as traders, or sailors in a Bontarian Navy?" Lady Grace asked the assembled group around the table.

Shareef sat bolt upright in his chair. His smile nearly doubling the light within the huge oval chamber.

"That's a brilliant idea, my lady!" Shareef complemented. "In all my time with Captain Soames, I learned that sailors normally divide into two types. The ones who are most at home with the deck beneath their feet, and those who go to sea to earn a better life on land once they retire from the sea." Shareef explained. "Not all of Captain Mendoza's squadron would accept the offer, but I feel certain that some of the men and the ships that follow him might accept such an offer once they have seen the city of Bonta." Shareef continued. "If enough men except, it could tip the chances of Mendoza attacking and sacking the city in the other direction." Shareef told King Louis. "I also learned something else at sea, which is just as true on the land. No man fights harder then when he is defending his home." Shareef finished quietly, and then sat back again.

"It is an interesting idea sire." Sir Reginald spoke up. "We wouldn't be buying them off year after year. Instead we offer them a chance to take up lives as honest men, and to build a home." Sir Reginald said.

"Perhaps there's something else we should consider also." Shareef spoke up. "Would your Majesty's grace be inclined toward the men who accepted our offer, but might still stand accused of piracy or privateering for other nations?" Shareef asked the king directly. "No man of a crew with such a mark against him will easily give up the safety of free movement by sea when someone waits to hang him or put him in jail when he touches land." Shareef explained.

King Louis looked deep in thought for a moment or two, and then look to Shareef as he spoke. "The kingdom of Bonta will offer royal pardon and Secours to any man of any ship's crew accused of piracy, as long as they are willing to be peace bonded as long as they live in Bonta." The king replied after a moment. "Do you suppose that would be sufficient, Shareef?" The King wanted to know.

"As someone who has known nothing but life at sea since I can remember, I can tell your Majesty that such an offer would be very gladly received by many who would wish to become honest men once again." Shareef answered.

"It's settled then!" King Louis interjected. "We shall put the idea of the Lady Grace, augmented by the insight of master Shareef into action." King Louis said in a regal tone. "We can certainly do no worse than our current situation, and if good ships and honest man would be part of our cause, we shall welcome them."

"If your Majesty will pardon me, there's still one problem we must address." Cici spoke up from her place at the table. "If our plan is to work, word must be spread among the ships and crews of Mendoza's squadron without Mendoza hearing of it. If one word of this escapes, Mendoza will use his influence, and perhaps blackmail to keep those willing to leave under his thumb."

"And sailors are ones to talk." Shareef admitted across the table.

"Bonta's offer of amnesty must remain secret, or we risk starting a fight between Mendoza's crew that wishes to leave, and those loyal to Mendoza." Shareef added. "And that might be as bad for Bonta as it would be for those of Mendoza squadron who would vote to join us. This might be trickier than we first supposed." Shareef warned.

"Once the sailors and their ships make port in Bonta for refitting, we collect the crew, including their captain, and we put the offer to them for a vote." Shibu spoke up. "Those ships and crews wishing to accept Bonta's offer will be refitted, as we have promised. That way, Bonta keeps her promise made by treaty. Those who vote not to accept must not be permitted to leave their ships, nor to send signals by light or flags. Crews who do not accept will find their ships need much more time and work in order to be refitted, and anyone who tries leaving may have to be locked up for their own security." Shibu offered, thinking through the problem one step at a time.

"Particularly when the citizens of Bonta learn that there is a rumor going around that those loyal to Mendoza plan to attack Bonta." The king replied, with a smile spreading across his face. "Brilliant!" The King interjected. "In the morning, we shall send couriers to every ship which has come in for refit." King Louis continued. "Those men who vote loyalty to Bonta shall have their ships refitted with the best we have, while those loyal to Mendoza will be separated, for their own safety and to ensure that no word of this gets back to Mendoza." The King decided.

“The Cra will patrol the docks.” Cici replied. “We will detain anyone from an unfriendly ship, as well as cut down any messages sent by flags.” She continued. “And a few “accidental” arrows flying around will discourage anyone seen on deck with a lamp.”

“Cici that's fantastic!” Shareef interjected. “As soon as Mendoza's crews get the idea that Bonta may be safer for them if they stay below decks, we'll have them all caught like fish in their own nets!” Said Cici's new brother with the silver white hair. But in spite of Shareef's open enthusiasm, Cici was still quiet and reserved.

“What's the matter, Cici?” King Louis asked. “Go on, speak freely.” the King told the leader of the Cra detachment.

"There is still some danger, your Majesty." Cici spoke up calmly. "We should plan as if someone will get word to Mendoza in spite of our best efforts." Cici told everyone around the table. "What Bonta chooses to do, and how we do it might mean the difference between starting a fight and avoiding one." Cici explained calmly. “I want to re-enforce the detachment. But that also means I must return to the Cra City long enough to ask for more help.” Cici explained. “Would Your Majesty write a letter to the Cra council, explaining Bonta's needs? It would help a great deal, I believe.” Cici requested, going down to one knee as she spoke to the King.

“Of Course, Cici, consider it done. You shall have that letter before I sleep this very morning.” King Louis replied. “There is nothing you cannot ask for, in return for the service of your people to Bonta.” King Louis told the svelte red-headed archer.

“I thank your Majesty, from the bottom of my heart.” Cici replied formally. “But I do not mean for mine to be the only voice you hear. Please ask the others to seek out any flaws which I might have overlooked.”

Across the table Sir Reginald glanced at his lady wife. Grace was smiling brightly and nodding gently. "We quite agree with the plan overall, your Majesty and especially with Cici. We should still be ready as best we can be if the worst happens."

King Louis thought things over for a moment. "Mendoza has better than thirty ships in his squadron." The King considered. "If the pace of the refit work is determined and careful, it may take some time to complete. Mendoza's squadron is away from whatever port it considers to be home. So they must subsist on whatever it is they have brought with them." King Louis replied by way of explanation. "Any blockade depends just as much on supply as it does the physical number of ships." King Louis reminded everyone around the table. "Sieges by sea work just the same as sieges by land, and sieges are something we Bontarians understand a great deal about."


	25. Forged in the Fires of Love

Less than an hour remained before full sun rise as the impromptu meeting of the King's counselors came to an end.

All those assembled rose from their seats, and either bowed or curtsied in turn to the King, who returned their respect with a smile as warm as the baths and blankets which nearly all of them hope for some time between sleep, breakfast, and noon.

Shareef instantly sought out Shibu's side, as the pair of brothers drew on their mutual strength to remain standing, and walking, even if it was slightly sideways by this time in a very long and eventful day.

Still seated at his place at the table, Felice noticed Louis looking upon Shibu and Shareef with concern.

"Sirs Shibu and Shareef!" The King called out to them in a slightly tired voice as the two were headed for the twisting iron staircase which was the quickest way to the top of the tower.

"Yes, your Majesty?" Both of them replied in unison.

"I'll need both of you well rested, well fed, and ready when we send out the first work gangs around midday." King Louis informed both of them. "That means it's all right for both of you to be a few minutes late if you need it." King Louis advised.

Shibu and Shareef exchanged glances, and both of them wore warm smiles as they replied. "Yes your Majesty, we'll be ready. Count on us, your Highness, we won't let Bonta down."

"I have no doubt of it, lads. Go to bed now, and sleep well. Good night, both of you."

"Once you boys find your way upstairs, I'll just float by, and make sure both of you are comfortable. I'll bring you a little snack to tide you over until breakfast." Felice told them both gently. "But I don't plan on trying to cook anything at all until I've had some sleep myself." Felice concluded.

"Thanks Mom!" Shibu and Shareef said at the same time.

The boys in the room had no way of knowing it, but hearing those words from her sons restored any energy she might need better and faster than sleeping in the softest of royal beds!

"Come now, your Majesty." Felice said, floating gently back to the side of the King, as she use the air currents that flowed within the huge tower itself. "After all, we must be certain that your Majesty is also fit to be seen by the public at midday."

"Right you are, Felice!" King Louis responded brightly, as he rose from his chair and politely offered Felice his arm even as she floated next to him in midair.

"Sleep well sire!" The comfortable interjection came from both Sir Reginald, and Lady Grace."

"Will you two be all right?" King Louis asked in a concerned tone. "We plan on spending the night here, so you to are most welcome to take advantage of the Royal bedchamber if you wish it, my friends." King Louis told his kingdom's two most accomplished knights.  
Sir Reginald and his lady wife could not hide slightly impish smiles as the two of them looked at one another.

"We thank your Majesty for his boundless generosity and consideration." Sir Reginald replied in a tone that was both warm and respectful.

"And we most certainly wish your most Royal Majesty a pleasant and comfortable light in return, we shall look forward to seeing you at or near the noon hour, at your pleasure." Lady Grace told the King. "Thank your Majesty again, and good morning to you." Lady Grace added, as she took Reginald's arm in the same way Felice had taken the King's arm, and the pair of Knights strolled out of the great doors of the tower smiling broadly at one another.

Shareef and Shibu stepped up and around the top curve of the iron staircase in the tucked away corner of Shibu's tower apartment.  
After Shibu was all the way up, Shareef was careful to set in place and lock the large circle of heavy stone that slipped around the central core of the iron staircase, essentially closing it off from use by anyone inside the tower.

As soon as they were alone, and secure, Shibu quickened his step toward their new round bed, unbuckling his belt as he went and letting it fall to the white stone floor. A roll of his shoulders let Shibu shed the ceremonial wool jacket as easily as a short hop-step got him out of the awful, prickly wool pants. Shibu's soft blue hat followed the ceremonial uniform to the floor, forming a soft puddle beside the bed, so that Shibu was completely undressed by the time he slid onto the silken sheets that decorated their new circular slumber spot.

Shareef was quick to follow suit, leaving a matching set of red and silver silks on the other side of the circle as he folded himself into bed, and the two brothers lay facing one another under the silken sheets after one of the longest days the two of them had ever known.

Shibu reached out to take hold of Shareef gently, at the same time Shareef did the same, reaching for Shibu.

Not a word passed between them, but Shibu seemed to glow all the more magnificently under Shareef's green eyes, as the two of them cuddled up together as if there round bed was no larger than a dofus.

Shareef had spent only a few nights together with Shibu. Their close contact was another sort of insurance against the malevolent power of the storm which was now nothing but a bad memory. Yet, both of them had come to understand that the idea of sleeping separately no longer worked for either of them. Shareef's warm, and handsomely olive skinned body was the antidote Shibu so badly craved over so many nights sleeping alone since he had come to Bonta Castle. Shareef had slept with Shibu from his very first night after coming home from the hospital where he had been treated as a victim of the storm. He had never asked permission, save once, and now he understood as Shibu did that the two of them simply would not be separated, by choice, or even by force of nature, for all their time together.

"I love you, Sir Shibu." Shareef whispered to his brother gently, before giving Shibu his usual nightly kiss upon his nose.

Shibu was already fading, but Shareef's gentle touch and loving words gave Shibu just enough energy to wrap his thick, powerful but gentle arms around Shareef, and pull him close enough so that their bodies touched beneath the warm, glistening softness of the satin sheets. Shibu kissed Shareef in return, once on his forehead, once on the cheek, and lastly, in keeping with the family tradition, gently upon his nose, just as Shareef had done for Shibu.

"I love you too, Shareef." Shibu whispered gently as his body and mind gave up to sleep, but as his heart gave itself to Shareef.

Felice was slightly annoyed when she discovered the round white stone plug set into the circular iron staircase. But it had been a long day, and even Shibu could do things from time to time through force of habit. So Felice merely fluttered out of the nearest open triangular window, and rose up the side of the white tower set into the cliffs of the seaside. The window in the pantry was open, as usual, and Felice fluttered in happily, carrying a large wooden tray, set with cut up fruit, bits of cheese, and cold meat for her boys.

But as she came around the corner from the kitchen, Felice could also hear the soft, almost silent breathing which seem to hum from a pair of figures tucked in together in the next room.

Felice paused, long enough to set the tray down on the small side table which doubled as a book stand and writing desk for Shibu. Then, on absolutely silent wings, as only an Enripsa could, Felice fluttered gently around the corner, and floated into the high arched door of the bedchamber, to take in the sight of her sons, tucked up together as if nature had made them one body rather than two.

There was no more beautiful vision to her in all the World of the Twelve, then seeing the gentle, and sweet smiles which lit up the faces of Shibu and Shareef as they slept curled up together in a room softly lit by the brand-new sunrise.

She could not, and would not disturb them for all the riches in the kingdom of Bonta. But for the moment, she was as tired as her boys, and King Louis needed her after a day that had been longer for the monarch than it had been for Shibu or Shareef.

"Sleep well, my handsome sons." Felice whispered in their general direction before she sailed once more toward the window in the pantry, and found the current of rising morning air that helped her to soar toward the castle itself once again.

Midday seemed to sneak up on the entire Kingdom of Bonta that morning. Shareef and Shibu awoke at the same instant, as they always did, but this time, with the mid-morning light, rather than the light of dawn streaming into the small triangular bedroom windows.  
Shareef smiled warmly as his brother got in the first kiss of the day, right on the tip of Shareef's nose!

Shareef took an extra moment, to make himself slightly more than even as he returned Shibu's kiss, lifting his brothers chin playfully with a finger before kissing Shibu gently, once on each cheek.  
Shibu retaliated by running a strong but gentle hand over Shareef's handsome mop of thick silver white hair, leaving his brother just slightly more disheveled than he was a moment before.  
The brothers smiled at each other, and then they parted, each diving for their side of the circular bed, and the soft pile of clothing that awaited them on the floor.

Shibu's first reflex was to reach for his hat, but when he saw the light in Shareef's green eyes as his brother admired the horns which the hat was intended to cover, Shibu paused for just a moment, turning his head just a bit, so that the morning light could cast the soft shadow of both sets of Shibu's horns across the circular bed, giving Shareef the chance he enjoyed so much. Shibu was always slightly humbled by the completely amazed expression, and gentle wonder which filled Shareef's green eyes whenever Shareef saw the wonder of Shibu's horns.

Shareef smiled, and then winked at his brother. The gesture always built up even more confidence in Shibu, when Shareef understood that the two of them faced a daunting task together.

"As nice as it would be to spend the rest of the morning looking at you, we should think first about food, and then turn ourselves to work." Shareef told Shibu gently, as Shibu finished putting on his hat, and then seeming to slide back into his set of red and silver silks by which the whole kingdom knew him.

Shareef reluctantly took his eyes and his thoughts from Shibu to do very much the same thing as his brother was doing at the same time.  
Life for Shareef whenever Shibu was around seemed to move from one miracle to the next, as it struck Shareef that the two of them had worn identical sets of silk for better than two days, and the light but strong material betrayed not a trace of soil or any loss of its crisp, softly shimmering grace as it moved along with them.

"I hope you don't mind my using your silks for another day, Shibu." Shareef said to his brother lightly. "I wouldn't want to confuse anyone, or give them the wrong idea."

"They look even more wonderful on you than they do on me, Shareef. It is as if they were made for you, in the same way they were made for me." Shibu replied gently. "After this day is done, perhaps we can see about letting you pick out your own colors for silks, and making you another outfit that the people can recognize when they see you." Shibu went on. "See if you can find us a bite or two of breakfast. I sense the time is coming fast when will have to leave here, and present ourselves in the Plaza below the castle. But we have a few minutes that the King himself gave us."

Shareef slipped on his sandals, and peeled into a rapid walk out of the bedroom, and around the other rooms of the tower apartment. He had gone no more than a half dozen steps before he let out a glad sounding yelp!

"Mom's been here, and she left us something to snack on." Shareef said with absolute delight in his voice, as he picked up a large slice of api, and bit into the fruit with a loud and satisfying crunch.

Shareef picked up the tray from where it was sitting on Shibu's desk, and brought it back around the corner, setting it neatly on the small table beside Shibu.

"Go ahead brother, you first. I know how much energy you'll need before the days over." Shareef said with encouragement. "I'll just have a bit more api, and some salt to ward off the heat of the day." Shareef added.

There were also two tall glasses on the tray, each of them filled with a familiar but unique mixture of fruit juices, the taste of which left both of them feeling both refreshed, and free of the effects of deep sleep.

"Cici has got to bottle and sell that juice that she blends." Shareef observed. "She could easily be the richest Ranger in the history of Bonta."

Sitting next to his brother as both of them snacked on meat and cheese, Shibu shook his head. "She won't do it." Shibu replied flatly. "She says it's another secret of the Ranger."  
Shibu added with an admiring tone.

"Cici is amazing." Shareef replied. "All through the celebrations, and even while she was supervising the fireworks, she never let you out of her sight for so much as a moment. She was watching both of us all night long, and was perfectly ready to take care of Mendoza with the first shot if he had started any trouble." Shareef told Shibu quietly. "Please don't tell her I told you, she didn't want you to worry about her."

"That's Cici, through and through." Shibu reflected for a moment. "She's watched me like a mother hawk ever since my very first day." Shibu related fondly.

"Both you and Bonta are very lucky, brother Shibu." Shareef answered. "I think she would do anything in the world for both you, and for Bonta too."

"I also know that she feels the very same way about you, Shareef." Shibu told Shareef gently. "Ever since we rescued you from Dragon Tooth Shoals, she hasn't talked about anyone nearly so much as she has about you." Shibu disclosed with a slight smile.

"Really?" Inquired Shareef, sounding more than slightly surprised. "I hardly know what to say, I'm sorry if I've offended you in any way, brother." Shareef answered.

"No no, it's not like that, Shareef." Shibu had to explain quickly. "Cici seems to have a natural instinct toward being drawn to those who have natural talent and skills. That fits you even better than my silks do." Shibu explained, calming Shareef down a bit. "I'm not offended at all, in fact, that's what I expected between both of you. I think Cici is as eager to teach you as she was to teach me, and she doesn't extend that feeling to everyone she meets. You have to earn it, and apparently, Cici believes in you as much as she believes in me."

Shibu's honest summary brought a broad smile to Shareef's face as he ran a flat palm over his disheveled hair before putting on his kafieh.

Shareef noticed Shibu's slightly odd expression at Shareef's change of headgear.

"It's going to be a warm day, brother, filled with hard work. I will be cooler, and able to work better this way. Never fear, no one will see anything that they shouldn't." Shareef told Shibu confidently.

"Yes, Shibu said finishing off the last nibble of cold meat and cheese. "And if we don't hurry, we're likely to be missed. Are you ready?" Shibu asked calmly.

"With my brother and my family at my side, I could face down another storm and another shipwreck without fear, brother Shibu. Let's go!" Shareef interjected energetically, as he walked over to the circular iron staircase, and pulled up the heavy circle of stone that was used to block it off.

But rather than take the stairs individually, or even a few at a time, all Shareef did was to tuck in his feet, and folded his arms close to his body with his elbows bent and pointing down! He dropped down through the hole as if sliding on a greased pole, and landed with surprising gentleness on the stone floor two floors down!

Shareef looked up at Shibu's expression and smiled. "Well?" Shareef asked. "Are you coming, or do I have to rebuild the entire city by myself?" Shareef's gentle teasing also carried the modest tone of a challenge, which he knew by now Shibu could not resist, even if he tried, as the challenges pointed directly at Shibu's secretive draconic nature.

For a moment, Shibu was caught flat footed, standing at the top of the iron staircase. But before he drew another breath, he copied Shareef's pose, and dropped through the hole before him as if he had been doing it every morning of his life, even though he was secretly thrilled to try something new and different.

Without even a passing thought, and without any unique gesture, Shibu felt himself drop into a portal as soon as he was clear of the iron staircase, and reappear at the bottom of the staircase in a blue circle of light, where he touched down lightly, standing next to his brother.

"Like you said, Shareef, let's go!" Shibu answered, his body seeming to crack like a whip as Shibu broke into the Ranger run! Shibu's quick reflexes left Shareef behind by a step or two, as the two of them raced down the connecting passageway toward the castle, and the Plaza. Speed was their friend, for, by this time,the King, and most of Bonta were surely waiting for them.

Shareef and Shibu seem to appear as if by magic at the main gate of the castle. Both of them were moving so fast that the Royal guard barely had time to wave them through the last checkpoint before both of them were headed down the hill, and toward the Plaza.

It took the usual two strides for them to slow into what looked like a leisurely jogging pace which brought them to the velvet rope line hanging on golden stanchions which separated an elevated platform from the Plaza itself.

"Up here, boys!" A familiar voice called.

Shibu smiled at Theo, and caught Shareef by the hand as the two of them sprinted up the short flight of stairs to the combination of Royal Box and reviewing stand.

The two of them quickly took their places on the dais behind the throne. Shareef was quick to notice the happy smile and nod which came from King Louis himself toward the two of them, before the King stood up and stepped forward as he had the night before, toward a small elevated speaker's platform.

"Bontarians!" Interjected King Louis with vigor. "We've come together today to heal our city after days of darkness which every Bontarian here will remember always." The King told the throng of citizens who had come to do the communal work of rebuilding the city. "To those among us who have lost loved ones and friends to the terrible storm just passed, the kingdom of Bonta extends sorrow, sympathy and understanding. Anything that we may provide to help you cope with your grievous loss will be given to you freely in the name of the city for which you have sacrificed."

There was a brief sprinkling of applause, and two or three energetic whistles of gratitude from the assembled city dwellers.

"There are also others among us in great need, because of the damage done to their homes, and their livelihoods by the passage of the storm. This is why we have all gathered together today." King Louis continued. In our younger days, as your Prince, I was trained as an engineer. It has stood me well as time has passed, for now, I can use some of my own skills to help my people who are most in need."

“Working together with the other engineers who work for us, and for the city of Bonta, we have assembled a list of dwellings and businesses which present the most serious need of repair. We shall begin of course, with the homes of our people, that no one may be left without a home." King Louis explained. "While the castle is a fine place to live, and will always be open to anyone in need, every Bontarian, including your King, always remembers that for each of us, there is no place like home."

This statement brought and even broader wave of rolling applause, scattered cheers and whistles from the citizens of Bonta, now gathered together as a group in the Plaza to hear their King.

"The engineers, masons, and carpenters require the assistance of willing hands to rebuild and restore the homes which have been damaged. This is where we will begin, this very day, and within this very hour to rebuild the Bonta which we love." King Louis told his subjects in a sincere tone. "Today, I lay aside my crown, my scepter, and the trappings of royalty to assume another important station, that of another loyal Bontarian, who will work and labor wherever he is needed, for this day, and as many days as needed to heal the heart of our city."

This time, the applause and gratitude of the crowd seemed to roll down across the Plaza in an avalanche of sound. Clapping hands, stamping feet, and loud whistles cut through the noontime air, and for a moment overwhelmed even the King's ability to speak.  
This time, it was King Louis himself who bowed humbly to his people, and waited for their expression of joy and happiness to subside before continuing.

"At various places around the Plaza you will see stations occupied by the engineers, masons, and builders drawn from every part of the city." King Louis explained. "Please apply to any one of them for assignment to a work group, which will be given a specific task to help rebuild a home for someone in need." Louis of Bonta told his fellow citizens. "Many hands shall make light work, and we shall move as groups from place to place requiring repair, dividing large amounts of labor into small tasks accomplished by each one of us together." Louis told the assembled crowd. "Now let us divide into groups, and unite as Bontarians to do good works for our people. Let us begin!"

There was another shorter round of applause this time, as the people gathered in the Plaza began to separate, and make their way toward the closest of the small tables set out around the circumference of the Plaza.

King Louis took off his crown and put down his scepter, setting them down with great ceremony upon a velvet cushion next to the throne, along with his own purple velvet cape, which was the mark of his Royal stewardship. Louis then walked down the short steps from the speaker's platform, to join one of the now serpentine lines which led to the table that had been set up closest to the speaker's platform.

Shareef gave Shibu a gentle nudge. "Should we join King Louis as well, brother Shibu?" Shareef asked in a gentle whisper.

"Let's wait a while." Shibu answered after a moment's consideration. "If I know King Louis, he already has special jobs ready for the both of us. He'll probably come back up and talk to us after he has his own work assignment." Shibu reasoned.

Shareef nodded, and made certain that he had a grip on Shibu's hand while the two of them waited the pleasure of the King, become regular citizen for the day.

After a few moments, a familiar figure dressed in short pants, flat shoes, and linen shirt weaved his way toward them through the crowd organizing itself on the Plaza.

"Hello boys!" King Louis said jovially.

Both of their faces lit up with surprise, as King Louis was absolutely recognizable by his white hair and beard, but they had never seen him in simple attire.

"Good Morning, Sire." Both of the boys managed to say together, in smiling amazement.

"Well what did you suppose I wear under all that fancy dress? Bare Skin?" The King asked with a wink.  
The trio shared a laugh and a warm embrace before Shareef asked the question of the hour for both of them.

"Where can Bonta use us best, Majesty?" Shareef asked.

"For today, and for the days to come, I am simply Louis, my fine boys." The modest monarch replied "But I did give you two more than a passing thought this morning." Louis told them both.

I hate to take you two apart, but for the jobs I have in mind, it is best for a while." Louis said. "Shibu, Bonta needs one of her best Blacksmiths. I want to re-enforce a lot of the stonework in the City with Iron staves and corner braces. If we're going to build things again, we may as well make them better as we go."

Shibu's bright eyes were already glowing like sun-lit sapphires at the image Louis had pronounced. "Wonderful!" He interjected. With the stones re-enforced, ten storms will never bring down the buildings again!"

Louis was nodding. "What a lad you are, Shibu, the best smith in Bonta, and also as bright as a silver coin!" Louis replied. "It will be a lot of work, much of it all the same. Can you do it for Bonta?"

"Sire?" Shareef interjected. "If you have a worry about the cost of all of this, you have only to set Shibu before a forge. I believe all of Bonta would pay to watch my brother working iron!"

Louis smiled broadly. "I think you have something there, Shareef!" Louis said, with a smile on his face and in his voice.

"Which brings me to Our newest Boantarian, and soon to be Squire, like your brother before you. Shareef, the job I have for you requires a Man of the Sea. Have I the best person for the job?" Louis asked Shareef directly.

"You do, Sire." Shareef replied simply.

"Good!" Just like your brother, the best pair in Bonta!" Louis told them both.

"I need someone who knows the ways of life at Sea to talk to the captains and crews of Mendoza's squadron." Louis explained carefully.

"Once they know of your experience at sea, they might well listen to you rather than some diplomat who has never had his toes wet." Louis went on.

"I understand, Sire." Shareef replied. "Mendoza also knew Captain Soams. They sailed together as young men, before each had their own ship."

"Excellent!" Louis said. "I knew I had the right person for this job!" Louis answered.

"But I won't send you out alone." Louis told him quietly. "I'll assign you two of the Cra detachment. Go with them from ship to ship re-fitting in the harbor dry docks. There are six of Mendoza's ships here just now. Mendoza himself put to sea this morning. He'll be away for two nights!"

"What a chance for Bonta, Sire!" Shareef said with a note of excitement.

"Don't be too happy just yet." Louis replied. "The Cra tell me that Mendoza left with an empty ship, and intends to return fully laden." Louis told the brothers.

'Supplies, for the blockade ships, I'll bet!" Shibu interjected.

"That's what Reginald thinks, and I agree, Shibu." Louis replied.

"We must move, swiftly, Sire." Shareef responded.

"Exactly why I came after a Man of the Sea, Shareef. You!"

Shareef jumped to his feet, pausing only to hug his brother warmly.

"I'd give the world to watch you at the forge, Brother, but this is just as important." Shareef told Shibu quietly.

"You'll get your chance once all this Mendoza business settles down, I promise you Shareef." Shibu answered. "Bonta is going to need a lot of iron, and steel too, if I'm any judge, and I'll need your help then too." Shibu told his brother gently. "For today, let's both do what we do best, and we'll let others write the songs and the stories later."

"I love you, Brother Shibu!" said Shareef with a quiet determination which Shibu already knew to be stronger by far than any steel he could forge alone.

"I love you, too, Shareef. Go and show these pirates what the word of a genuine Man of the Sea is worth." Shibu replied.

Shareef nodded resolutely, and with visible difficulty, parted from his brother. "If your Highness will excuse me, I too will start work this day." Shareef said, going down on one knee before Louis, before using the position to launch himself like a sprinter out of the blocks, and away from the pair.

"What's the matter, Sire?" Shibu asked Louis as he noticed an emotional twitch in the elderly monarch's expression.

"I never understood until a moment ago why the two of you are so close." King Louis confessed. The two of you love each other the same way I love Bonta. Nothing will ever come between the two of you. Your love is the greatest strength I have ever seen. I know of it, because I too fell in love long ago. With a Lady named Bonta."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Shibu answered. "We are all bonded by the strength of love." Shibu added. "That's why I believe that Mendoza and this Gilpin person have not a chance in the world against Shareef and Bonta."

"Shibu, there are times I trust your insight more than my own, and thank goodness for that." King Louis answered.

"I'll leave you to both the fires of love and of the forge, My fine Lad. If you need anything at all, come and find me."

Rather than the bow which normally passed between them, this time Louis took hold of Shibu and hugged him deep and warmly. "Have a good day, Sir Shibu of Bonta." the king told him as Louis found the strength somewhere to turn and walk away, and back to his own assignment for the day.

"I hope we all have a good day, Sire!" Shibu called gently after Louis, but the elderly King was already lost in the milling crowd.

Shibu felt a sudden sharp pang of sadness that he had never known before, and then, undaunted, he swallowed hard, and turned his thoughts to the fire for the forge.


	26. Three Men of the Sea

Shareef flowed into the first few steps of the Ranger run simply by instinct. He was halfway across the Plaza and on his way up the hill before he took the necessary two strides to slow himself to a stop.  
He suddenly became aware of a pair of archers behind him. He recognized the uniforms, but not necessarily their faces, as being from the Cra detachment.

Shareef gave them a chance to catch up with him, and catch their breath at the same time.

"You fellows all right?" Shareef asked, as the two young archers laboriously pulled deep breaths from the air, in an attempt to remember what oxygen felt like. It was several breaths before the taller of the two figures was able to find both his tongue, and enough air to speak.

"We're fine, Sir." The young lad fairly panted as he made sure that his bow was still over his shoulder. For just a moment, he had thought perhaps it had slipped and tangled around his neck to keep him from breathing.

"You do not look it." Shareef answered. "Take your time, and catch your breath." Shareef instructed. "We have much to do today, you will not be at your best if you feel you must faint at every step."

"Very sorry sir, but we haven't been taught the Ranger run yet."

"Ah, new recruits, then?" Shareef inquired.

"Yes sir." The shorter of the pair replied sounding more than slightly dejected. "We finished basic training just last week, Sir." He replied, trying his best not to sound as green as the trees which the Rangers always defended.

"Very well." Shareef replied, sounding sympathetic. "Very much of Bonta is new to me as well, as I came here via shipwreck rather than regular transport." Shareef explained. "Perhaps the best thing for us to do to get us through this day, is to learn from each other. You will help me to know where to go, and about the city of Bonta. In return, I will teach you what my brother has taught me about the Ranger Run, agreed?" Shareef told his pair of escorts.

"Yes sir, very good sir!" Both of the young Cra said practically at the same time.

Shareef's face took on a gentle smile.

"First of all, there is no need for formal address. Particularly around the sailors we will find on the docks. We shall call each other by our first names. Mine is Shareef. It is not "Sir." You will call me Shareef, if you please."

Here Shareef paused and waited until he received two short but affirmative nods from the young archers who were now in his charge.

"My name is Daniel, Shareef. And pleased to meet you, I certainly am." The taller one said in a friendly tone as the trio began to relax.

"My given name is Rudy, said the slightly shorter and rounder of the pair of archers. "But my friends, and nearly everyone else in the guard calls me Shane. Pleased to meet you, Shareef."

"That is much better." Shareef took a moment to explain to his new friends. “But not yet perfect. "If we were to show up on the docks in uniform, and using military discipline and ranks, the sailors would think that we were there to arrest someone, or investigate something, and I promise almost none of them would speak to us." Shareef explained casually. "If they think us a trio of sailors, off-duty, and in search of a billet, they will be more at ease, and from what they say, we will learn more." Shareef told the pair of rookie archers. Before we get near the docks, I want both of you in casual clothes.” I will change clothes also, so I look like a sailor.”

Shane blinked at Shareef in wide-eyed amazement. "That's brilliant!" The young Archer exclaimed quietly.

"It is only experience correctly applied." Shareef answered. "If you are to go among sailors, you must know how sailors think, and how to act around them so they will be at ease." Shareef told both of them.

"It's like a sort of camouflage, isn't it?" Daniel inquired casually.

Shareef nodded his head and smiled. "Indeed it is, Daniel my friend."

Shareef answered. "For what we are about to do, our true intentions must be hidden away for the moment, so that plans greater than our own can be kept secure." Shareef continued.

Both Daniel and Shane looked in amazement at Shareef. From their expressions, Shareef could tell he had earned their respect, as well as their admiration and understanding. Keeping the two of them safe would now be much easier, especially as the three of them now set a casual walking pace across Bonta in the early morning. 

For this day, her streets would be mostly deserted, except for the work gangs repairing the city. So the trio was able to make a quick step across the city, and back toward the Castle itself. The two young Cra were even more amazed to see the silver clad Royal Guards salute Shareef, and pass him into the castle keep itself without so much as a word of challenge.

The trio passed into the space that had been the vast hospital during the fearsome storm, and beyond it into one of the many smaller rooms used for storage. It took Shareef only a few minutes to find an even smaller room, off to one side, with lines strung in neat rows across the room, over large tubs of water.

“Here we are, the hospital Laundry.” Shareef said to the other two quietly. “We will borrow some regular clothing for now, and return it later. Remember you are not dressing formally.” Shareef reminded them.

With the multitudes of people who had been in need, their was clothing of every form, style and size to be had. In a few minutes, the three of them looked like a trio of sea-faring men that might be seen in any harbor from Bonta to Brakmar.

Persuading the pair of young Cra to lay aside their bows was more difficult than the disguises themselves, but after some re-assurance from Shareef, both Daniel and Shane saw reason, especially after Cici's name was mentioned in passing by Shareef.

A half an hour had gone by before three strange sailors decided that they could no longer just stroll passed the Royal Guards, so the trio had to find a more common way to leave Bonta castle.

Shareef led the two of them down the passage toward Shibu's tower,where Shareef paused to collect a medium sized leather bag, which he entrusted to his two friends. The pair of Cra looked at Shareef with even more amazement when the bag “clinked” loudly with the weight of the coins inside! They walked out of Shareef's home, and down the iron staircase to the base of Shibu's tower, and out of the unlocked doors at it's base. They walked together only a score of steps on the sand, until the three of them stood where Mendoza had come ashore in the longboat.

The long walk down the coastline and over the breakwater helped Shareef to get the three of them thinking and feeling like sailors, who acted as if they had shipped together for years.

They followed the coastline toward the edge of Bonta Harbor, close enough to the docks so that the trio could smell the salt in the air, and so Shareef could hear once more the familiar sounds that went with the seaport, a dry dock, and the life at sea that Shareef had been suddenly forced to leave behind him. He paused with his two friends at the very edge of the docks, this time to steady himself rather than his friends, and to draw a deep and familiar breath of the salt air before he walked back into what seemed to be his life of so very long ago.

Shareef paused for just a moment, fighting back a familiar twinge of bittersweet memories. He hadn't been much older than his two friends when his small boat, storm tossed and leaking had sailed into a port very much like this one, but removed from this place by half the world, and a flood of memories to go with every league of the distance across the seas.

Shareef found himself taking some of his own advice. When he moved again, it was with a slow and deliberate pacing which marked almost as much time with each step as the two ends of the swing on a clocks pendulum.

He could feel Daniel and Shane behind him, and that gave him the push of confidence he needed to take a dozen more steps toward a small, weather-beaten shack, set well back from the warfs and the water. Through the cracked and weather-beaten glass which still hung precariously in some of the windows, Shareef could see one lonely figure sitting behind a forlorn stretch of counter, and his nose almost pressed into a ponderous tome almost twice the size of his own head. 

Shareef reached up for the grimy unpolished brass knob on the lower half of the tall French door, half of which hung on its twisted iron hinges.

Only Shareef's slightly truculent attitude gave his two friends the gumption required to face the corpulent swab with a cigar butt clenched between his two remaining teeth. But as the three of them walked in to the greasy room, it was Shareef who did all the talking, and in a most unexpected dialogue.

"Avast ye, Mate! I wanna parlay with the Harbor Master, which course does an honest Man of the Sea need ta chart?"

"Drop anchor and strike yer colors!" the fat man with the dark leathery skin replied. "I be Josiah, an' if you've come lookin' fer another storm in these parts, you've found it. Tis I meself who be the Master o' this here faculty, an I don't like strangers hereabouts." The Harbor Master told the trio shortly.

But almost before the fat man had finished his warning, Shareef's hand was reaching smoothly for the leather bag, and as Josaia finished, and began to stand up from the overburdened, half broken chair that supported his bulk, six matched coins sailed thru the space between the trio and the man, who had something to fill his hands with, other than trying the three of them.

"Consider those our "callin' card, as you might say." Shareef told him, up close. "We be'n't strangers. Would a stranger leave an honest man a visitin'card made of gold?" Shareef asked.

Josiah grunted, pocketing the coins before he sat down again.

"What kin I do fer ye, Mates?" he wanted to know.

"I've set my cap on seein' an old friend an former Captain." Shareef answered. "One Elias Soams. And if you be the man I fancy you are, that's a name you'll know, right enough. Myself an my Mates are lookin fer a billet with 'im If he'll take three more good men and true." Shareef explained quickly.

"Aye, I knew Soams, Right enough." Josiah replied with a touch of regret. "The only port of call he has now be da the down and dirty deep."

"Er you tellin' me that Soams has gone to a seaman's reward?"

"Aye, Laddie Buck an its the poorer we all are for it." Josiah answered. "The best you'll do now is his late crew, which bought a new ship, fresh off the yards, and are outfitin' her for sea at dock number six. Seems they'd welcome yer sort, as they are free spenders too. They bought out the best of everything in the harbor ta fit her out."

"Thankye, Josiah." Shareef responded, even as the mention of Soams passing tugged hard at his heartstrings. He had managed to push it all away with Mendoza's arrival and Shibu's investiture. But now, the saddest moment he had ever known came roaring back like the passage of the malevolent storm. Shareef held his composure, but he could not escape the tears that welled up slowly in his eyes.

"Here, Lad." Josiah said in a far more friendly tone than before. As he spoke, the big dark-skined man from the islands pushed forward the shell of a tin cup across the grimy counter. "Let's drink ta Soams, then, fer I kin tell ye knew him too. Josiah's second pronouncement was punctuated by a large, dark bottle pulled from somewhere below and behind the counter in front of him. Josaih unstoppered it with a flip of his thick thumb, and poured a goodly slosh of a dark brown liquid across the bottom of the tin cup. Then he pushed it toward Shareef.

Josiah kept the bottle for himself and waited for Shareef to collect the well-used old cup in a hand that was shaking deeply enough to send a ripple across the dark fluid in the cup. Once Shareef collected it, Josaih spoke up, louder than he had done before.

"T'was Soams himself who fetched me this, at a dear price, from the Islands whereon he once put in to get provisions." Josaih explained.   
Shareef felt his insides liquefy, even before the drink had passed his lips. Shareef remembered every day of that voyage--and Marco, too. All of it flooded back, hitting Shareef like the storm surge which had smashed into Bonta herself.

"He was a fine man. Wouldn't have my coin when I offered to repay him. Said he that it was a favor done fer a friend." Josaih explained somberly.

"Aye.." Replied Shareef as he now struggled for breath and for words.

"Ta Captain Elias Somes. Long may he sail the calm waters of our memories." Josiah said, waxing unusually poetic for a rough-hewn gob.

Shareef had only one chance. He picked up the dirty cup, and quaffed the dark rum in one swallow! He could not get away with pretending to drink, nor with passing the cup to Daniel or Shane. They were far too young. Shareef was the only one in the room who knew the pungent strength of molasses rum. A mere angel's spoon, borrowed from a communion set, and filled with “Dark water” had broken Shareef's fever the first time he was ill at sea. Soams himself had been on the other end of the tiny silver spoon, and the "dark water" had burned Shareef's fever from him after only one night of the best sleep of his life. To save the situation, and perhaps, even to save Shibu and Bonta, and to spare his friends, Shareef took down one hundred times as much rum!

The dirty tin cup clinked back down to the counter, as Josiah finished a double pull from the aged brown bottle that Shareef had been the very first one to drink from.

"That's Dock six, Mate. “Tell the boys that Josiah sends you, along with his best. Fair weather to ye, Mates!”

Daniel and Shane may not have been half as wise to the ways of the world as their mentor Shareef. But both young Cra understood instantly what had to come next. The two of them took Shareef gently but firmly under the shoulders, and together, the trio turned and managed a quick step toward the broken French door of the Harbor Master's office.

The Trio was out of Josiah's line of sight in four or five quick steps, as they were standing on a quay that had once been a fine dock. Now it was being torn apart slowly by the waves.  
Shareef fell, full face forward toward the brownish green water lapping at the wood, and as he lay his body down, Shareef wretched violently, vomiting into the brown water a vile puddle of slime darker than the water itself!

Daniel watched the spectacle on a growing wave of fear.

"He's been poisoned!" Daniel said, urgently but quietly to Shane. "Go fetch an Enripsa, from the castle!"

But before Shane could move, he felt the powerful grip of Shareef's rough hand clamp around his wrist, holding the young Cra as firmly as any ship at anchor.

Shareef managed to pull into himself the same sort of breaths that the pair of Cra had gulped when they first met that very morning, and after a moment, feeling as though he had been hit with the recoil of a twenty-four pound cannon, Shareef rose to his feet, with help, and steadied himself.

"Dry dock.. Slip number six, and hurry." Shareef whispered to both of them quickly as his two friends helped him to his feet. 

Shareef relaxed between the two youthful Cra, taking on the pose of any sailor whose only port of call was a rum bottle.

Daniel and Shane didn't need to be told this time, and the trio set off down the main wharf of the shipyard, staggering lightly to and fro as Shareef set the tempo between them.

That tempo changed quickly as the trio neared slip number six in the dry dock of Bonta Harbor.

Shareef shook his shoulders slightly, and Daniel and Rudy got the message. They let go of Shareef's shoulders, and as soon as he was free, Shareef was up on his toes again, instinctively into the Ranger run at truly breakneck speed headed for the gangplank of the ship ahead of him, even while great crates and bundles of supplies were still coming up the same gangplank and onto the ship.

Shareef darted between them as if he'd done it his entire life, and cut across the main deck sharply, toward the starboard end of the quarter deck, where a large open cask of fresh water stood,open to the crew. Traditionally, this was for the use of the deck hands doing the loading, because it was hot, difficult work that took a real toll of strength and endurance. But Shareef did not stand on ceremony. He snatched up the small silver pot that was intended for use as a universal water ladle, and without so much as a word, he poured three dippers of water across his head, and two more full drinks directly down his throat, even before someone in the deck watch had the chance to raise a cry of caution or alarm at the intervention of a stranger.

"Attention on deck!" One of the crew hollered, forcing any and all of the crew who had their hands full to literally drop what they were doing, and turn their complete attention to the strange figure who had made a dash for the water supply!

Steptoe had the deck watch, and got to the much smaller figure before anyone else, hoisting the smaller figure up by the same arm which held the makeshift ladle, before he could manage another drink.

"Lookee here lads!" Steptoe said in a slow drawl toward the rest of the crew on deck. "We've been boarded, we have!"

The second officers humorous observation brought a rolling laughter from the crew on deck, who began to turn back to their work, just as the captive figure raised his voice in his own defense.

"Put me down, Mister Steptoe!" A familiar voice shouted across the deck. "It's Shareef, and I brought friends!"

The mention of the name itself was enough to stop the entire crew where they stood on deck. A moment later as Steptoe set down the intruder gingerly, and the makeshift hood fell down revealing his head and face, the rest of the crew forgot work entirely for a moment.

"Come aboard lads, and get you some clean water, while I parlay with these here Men of the Sea." Shareef called out to Daniel and Rudy, who were still waiting at the bottom of the gangplank, with confusion and uncertainty written on their faces. Slowly, the two of them made their way up and onto the main deck. But the pair crept up on the water barrel this time, as if it were filled with diamonds and rubies rather than water.

As the two dipped into the water cautiously, another familiar voice echoed across the crowded deck.

"Ahoy Mister Shareef!" A spare figure with a flowing mane of white hair called from the other end of the quarter deck. "Advance and be recognized!" Mister Gallagher continued in a half serious tone.

"Ahoy Captain Gallagher!" Shareef called out in a glad and excited voice. He gave Captain Gallagher a formal salute, and then a full arm wave, while the rest of the crew was still reacting to the presence of their absent shipmate and his unusual friends.

The now Captain Gallagher folded up the ledger book and stub of a pencil in his fingers, setting it down on a barrel of flour meant to be taken to the galley below. But the foodstuffs were forgotten for a moment, as both the white haired seaman and the young lad came together with an informal hand shake, and a warm back slapping embrace.

"We thought maybe Mendoza had a hold of you, youngster." Captain Gallagher said in a slightly more serious tone as he looked Shareef up and down, checking the lad for signs of scuffing or injury.

"I figured you all would recognize Mendoza squadron when you saw it. I'm happy that you are in harbor fitting out, rather than trying to slide through Mendoza's blockade." Shareef replied in his own happy and relieved tone.

"When the time comes, Mister Shareef, we'll slide out of here right enough, and Mendoza and his rowboats will never know we were here in the first place." Captain Gallagher replied. "Soames taught me that much, particularly about Commodore Mendoza." Mister Gallagher observed with a note of scorn in his voice as he mentioned the name of the supposedly higher ranking officer in the squadron.

"Begging the captain's permission Sir, I need to talk to you and to Mister Steptoe urgently below decks. We have a much bigger problem now than just slipping by Mendoza and his thieves." Shareef told the former first mate.

Captain Gallagher had sailed with Shareef long enough to have heard and understood the serious tone that Shareef could strike when there was a storm coming. Shareef's words were warning enough, but how he spoke them brought even more warning and gravity to what he said.

"Right enough my lad, I presume you know the way to the captain's cabin by now. I'll fetch Mister Steptoe, and one or two of the others, and be down directly."

"Thank you very much, Captain Gallagher." My two friends filling themselves up and emptying the water cask are friends of mine, from the Cra detachment, here in Bonta." Shareef explained quickly.

"You'll need to hear what they have to say also, if you please sir." Shareef added in a respectful tone.

"Very good Mister Shareef, I'll see you all in quarters below very shortly." And Mister Shareef?" Captain Gallagher asked sympathetically.

"Aye, Sir?" Shareef replied automatically.

"Could you stop by the galley, and bring us all a plate?" Captain Gallagher asked respectfully of Shareef. "Mister Richards still hasn't gotten the hang of the galley, and I, for one, miss your vittles." Captain Gallagher confessed with a friendly smile.

"It would be my pleasure Sir." Shareef replied in a tone that was both fun-loving and grateful at the same time.


	27. Shore Leave

Five minutes later, Shareef found himself back in very familiar surroundings. The new galley was remarkable, larger, better stocked, and to Shareef's delight, primed with running water.

Making his familiar meat pies was as easy and keen as his reflexes. A simple dough circle, filled with savory shavings of smoked meat, simply folded in half,and the dough browned. The result was a convenient size to fit the hand. They were quick, filling, and most of all simple to prepare.

Before Shareef thought about something to go with them, he had already made four dozen before he put a stop to what he playfully referred to as his "galley reflexes."

Shareef paused to think, and then got the idea for the sauce. Fresh water aboard a ship at sea was worth more than gold to her crew. So there was plenty of other things to drink aboard ship, as long as the captain and the crew exercised moderation. One of these was a good, but inexpensive red wine. On the rack above the iron burners, which set directly on the coals, there was a sturdy wooden and metal condiment shelf. The biggest bottle on the shelf held the clear liquid that Shareef knew as well as he knew the salt in the sea.

Two parts of red wine, and one part of vinegar set the sauce, which was poured into a copper bowl and set on to the tray near the heaping plate brimming over with meat pies.

Shareef was having such a good time in the galley that he nearly forgot the reason he was there, and not just in the galley.  
He swept up the tray with the meat pies, and the sauce and set a course for the narrow companionway which led from the galley to the last few descending steps toward the captain's cabin in the aft end of the ship. Again, Shareef found himself moving by reflex, according to patterns that would never leave his brain. The new ship which had replaced the broken Gypsy Star was exactly like the older vessel, only larger in aspect at all points.

This included the captain's cabin, which was now a massive three deck high room with the vaulted ceiling done in gold filigree.

Shareef was the first to arrive, and thus to take in the splendor of the room. Captain Soames would've loved it, but Shareef was certain that the frugal mariner he knew would have winced at the cost of it.  
Shareef set the tray with the meat pies and the sauce on to the captain's sideboard table, leaving the main desk clear for the discussion to come. For a few moments, Shareef had nothing to do but wait, and in the opulence of the new captain's cabin, he found his thoughts once again turning to Captain Soames.

The antique overstuffed chair that had been Soames favorite was still behind the desk. Shareef was drawn toward it as if Soames himself had spoken Shareef's name. Before he could stop himself, Shareef found himself swallowed up by the all-too-familiar chair that had been Soames only genuine possession beyond the massive desk behind which the chair sat. Shareef brought his hands up, to the arms of the chair, striking the position he had seen Soames use so many times as the captain and master of the Gypsy Star contemplated his course of action.

But Shareef wasn't in the chair for thinking. He found tears simply cascading down his face, as he tucked his chin into his chest, and for the first time since his friend's death, Shareef let his grief take him over.

The next thing Shareef heard was a gruff but familiar voice.

"There now lad." Captain Gallagher spoke up gently, as he dropped a hand across Shareef's shoulders. "There hasn't been a minute since he left us that I haven't missed him." The former first officer confessed quietly. "I've tried to do him and his crew right by the new ship, just like he wanted. But that doesn't mean I don't feel a sort of hole where he used to be."

"My apologies Captain, I meant no disrespect." Shareef responded looking at Captain Gallagher with tear stained green eyes. "I should get up, and let you have your seat." Shareef told him as he managed a proper salute in the new captain's direction.

"No lad." Captain Gallagher responded. "You stay put. I reckon you belong there just now as much as anyone, including me." Captain Gallagher told him sympathetically. "I do know that Soames also saw you taking that chair one day, when it would matter the most."

"The matter is urgent, and the time is short, Captain Gallagher. I am convinced that Mendoza means to capture and sack Bonta.”

The next moment, Shareef took in the sight of the twisted expression that was an unspeakable note of pain to the white haired seafaring man.

"That would be his style, right enough, the dirty dog." Captain Gallagher answered. "He's always secretly coveted the white city, and Soames knew it, just as much as he himself." Captain Gallagher explained slowly.

"Aye,But Captain Soames t'were both honorable and practical." Said a familiar voice, as Mister Steptoe slipped quietly into the captain's cabin, and closed the door behind him. "The captain understood that once such a thing was done, the ships and the crews what done it would be marked men all their days." Steptoe explained in his slow and steady drawl, which this time, seemed to give a lifelong mariner more wisdom than usual. "Soames knew better." Steptoe continued. "You'd have all the riches a man could ever want after such a thing, but he'd not have no port of call in which he be welcome to spend his wealth, and the same be said for any crew what helped him."

"That is what I thought also, Mister Steptoe." Shareef answered after a moment. "He was one to take risks whenever there were rewards to be had, but Captain Soames in his heart was not the evil sort who could sack a major kingdom, and put its people to the sword." Shareef continued.

"Yet, that's what Mendoza means to do." Shareef told his shipmates. "I'd set my life to the fact that I'm right." Shareef told the new captain and his first officer. "I also know the crew of the Gypsy Star, which is why I've come to you first."

"What did you have in mind, Mister Shareef?" Captain Gallagher asked directly.

"I bring the word of not only the King of Bonta, but of his kingdom entire." Shareef began. "Any ship and any crew that takes the side of Bonta will have a complete and free pardon, under the authority of the King, King Louis IV of Bonta. Any ship, and any man Jack of the crew who joins Bonta in her hour of need shall have a commission in the Navy of Bonta, and her captain, likewise." Shareef told Captain Gallagher and Mister Steptoe. "I came here first, I came home, first, because I knew my shipmates would never take a hand under the double-dealing Mendoza and his fleet of floating thieves. For, as Captain Soames said to us, we are men of the sea, and thus we have something Mendoza does not." Shareef paused to take a breath, and that allowed Steptoe to finish Shareef's speech with a single word.

"Honor." Mister Steptoe said with a defiant tone in his familiar drawled voice. "I'll raise not a hand against innocent people, who have never done me no wrong, with all due respect to yourself Captain Gallagher." Mister Steptoe said quietly, but with the tone that conveyed his determination in what he said.

"And you, Mister Shareef?" Captain Gallagher asked. "Feel you the selfsame way?" Captain Gallagher asked Shareef in a serious tone.

"I have made a home in Bonta, my Captain, and there I have a new family discovered, and a brother whom I knew not I had. I would bleed for them all ten thousand times, but I'll not bleed once for the seagoing bandit who would destroy the place which I call home, and dear to me." Shareef replied, a note of defiance and determination putting steel in his voice as he finished speaking.

"It's settled then." Mister Gallagher said at last. "Pipe the crew to assemble on deck, and I'll put this to them for a vote." Mister Gallagher told Steptoe and Shareef together.

"Captain Gallagher?" Shareef asked after a moment." I had another motive in coming back here today." Shareef confessed quietly.

"Between you and the rest of our crew, you know most of the ship captains, and their crews in Mendoza's squadron." Shareef explained. "Most of them sailed under Captain Soames, before Mendoza made himself known." Shareef told his shipmates. "King Louis thought that your first service to Bonta might be to take word of the King's promise to the other ships in Mendoza squadron, particularly those blockading the harbor." Shareef said, speaking directly to both his Captain, and his friend.

"Your King Louis is certainly everything I've heard him to be, Mister Shareef." Captain Gallagher replied. "He's waited out the blockade, until Mendoza had to take the Silver Swan and his best crew for supplies." Capitain Gallagher remarked. "I like the way your king thinks." 

"I see the problem Shareef has, Captain." Steptoe drawled easily. "The King has to get 'round the men and the ships still loyal to Mendoza." Steptoe added thoughtfully. "If once Mendoza discovers this plan, He will take the crews loyal to him and press an attack on Bonta." 

Sitting in Soames' chair, Shareef nodded enthusiastic agreement. "I knew you all would be the ones able to get word to the right people, so all of the loyal ships and crews can act together when the time is right." Shareef told his friends.

"Then the moment is with us." Captain Gallagher replied. "Mendoza took himself, the Swan, and three other ships to make a supply run for the blockade ships." Captain Gallagher told Shareef. 

As he spoke, Captain Gallagher quickly pulled a familiar but worn chart off of the nearby side table, and spread it out on top of the desk between the three of them.

"Word is that he and his squadron have been holed up in the Barracuda Archipelago. If that be true, he has a full day of sailing yet to get back, probably another full day to ship provisions, and then two more days to get back here, before his blockade ships run short of food, water and supplies." Captain Gallagher surmised, 

“In That event, we have three days, let us say.” Shareef conjectured. “Three days to make our plans work, in secret, while Bonta makes her Navy and lays her fate on Honest Men of the Sea.”

While the close group of the ship's officers pounced happily upon Shareef's meat pies,Captain Gallagher considered Shareef's intentions as well as his words for a moment.

"You're right that Soames never would've cottoned to anything like this." The white haired mariner answered the former cabin boy. "And since he's not here anymore, I suppose it's up to me to carry on. I'm with you, Mister Shareef." Captain Gallagher said finally. "The question is, what would you have us do now?"

"My two friends, probably still on deck by the water barrel are not working sailors. They are two scouts from the Cra detachment." Shareef began his reply by way of explanation. "I'd like at least one, and possibly two of the ship's company to go with each one of them, to the other ships in the fleet whose captains once sailed with Captain Soames." Shareef explained.

"Aye,That would give us the best and most logical chance of winning over most of Mendoza's squadron." Captain Gallagher replied. "I hear tell that most of them went over to Mendoza based on his promise of loot, taken from those places ravaged by the storm." Captain Gallagher told Shareef quietly. "But I hear so far that none of them are any too happy, because Mendoza has taken much in the way of small loot, and has not divided it since his squadron sailed." The white haired Captain related in a more offhand way.

"That's why he covets Bonta as he does!" Shareef replied in a moment of better understanding. "He needs a prize like Bonta to keep all those friendly faces in his squadron friendly-to him, that is."

"You may be right, Mister Shareef." Captain Gallagher answered. "Some pitiful handful of silver and a few gems won't satisfy the sort of men in Mendoza squadron. All of them are looking for a score that would make them rich enough to become landed gentry, or gentlemen traders, very much in the mold of Captain Soames." Captain Gallagher told Shareef.

"So he's got to win, or his power evaporates, like seawater giving up salt." Shareef surmised. "The commission from King Louis will pay them a much more certain wage over time, by granting them a salary from the Navy or a share of the trades that they shall make as honest men of the sea, rather than a flotilla of thieves." Shareef told his shipmates.

"That there is the message you have to take to every Captain and on to every ship that once sailed under Captain Soames." Steptoe drawled simply. "I recognize some of Mendoza's marauders by sight, and some by smell." Steptoe continued. "Once they know that there is a better deal from someplace like Bonta, where they can see the wealth of the city, and share in it without spilling their blood, they'll give Mendoza a black spot, and join up to defend Bonta, for a price, rather than risking themselves to take the city." Steptoe concluded.

Across the table, Captain Gallagher nodded, supported by Steptoe's slow speech, but quick mind.

"Go up on deck, get your friends, and get them down here." Captain Gallagher told Shareef quietly. "I'll send Mister Steptoe, and our former cook over to the Majestic." Captain Gallagher said. "She's due out of dry dock in about two hours time." He said to Shareef. Jackson, her master, and I exchange letters when we can. He was once Captain Soames' second officer, until Mendoza lured him away with promises of his own ship, and someday, command of the squadron." Captain Gallagher advised. "But it's been nigh on five years now, and Jackson just got himself a little wife, and he hankers to settle down with a little house, for his little wife, and a big family."

"That's fantastic!" Shareef replied. "Once Jackson hears of the King's offer, I'm certain he will accept, as I'm sure that Bonta would accept him if he came as a friend and an independent trader. Once Jackson and his ship sail with Bonta, others will follow."

"Go on now, get on deck, and get your friends." Captain Gallagher said at last. "We may have three days, but there's no use in wasting too much time with words, and leaving too little time for action before Mendoza and his vipers come back."

"Before you leave, Mister Shareef, Sir?" Steptoe asked, speaking up when his turn came.

"What is it, Mister Steptoe?" Shareef asked in reply.

"There's one person here that we can't afford to lose. Because if we lose you, or someone who supports Mendoza decides to hold you, will have a war of our own, trying to get you back." Mister Steptoe drawled slowly.

"Mister Steptoe is right, my lad." Captain Gallagher answered quickly. "I know how hard it will be for you, but you'll need to stay here, safe and sound, while your friends, and some of the crew go about the business of recruiting Bonta's Navy." Gallagher said. “I also remember Mister Gilpin. I can't know for sure certain that he left with Mendoza. If he is in the fleet somewhere, and claps eyes on you, that be another war we might not win so quick an easy-like.” Gallagher told Shareef.

"I see your point." Shareef replied after a moment of deep consideration. "When everything is said and done, someone has to go back and report to King Louis about the situation." Shareef observed.

"Can you arrange for each ship that votes loyalty to Bonta to run up a fair weather signal from their mainmast?" Shareef asked the others quietly. "That way, the other ships that try to signal via hoist to Commodore Mendoza will give themselves away when the flags are different." Shareef added quietly. "I will arranged for my friends in the Cra detachment to cut down everything except Fair weather pendants." Shareef told the ship's officers. "Bontarian guards will board each ship that votes no loyalty to Bonta, and take the Captain and the officers into custody." Shareef disclosed. "Then we shall asked the crew to vote again, and see if minds and hearts change without the influence of Mendoza and his venomous officers."

"My complements, Mister Shareef." Captain Gallagher said with admiration in his voice. "You've thought everything through, and it all works. But there is one aspect of all this which I think you have overlooked." Captain Gallagher told Shareef frankly.

"And exactly what would that be, in your opinion, Captain Gallagher?" Shareef asked amiably. "We must be sure as we can that every possibility is covered." Shareef added.

"Until we know how we stand, and who is with us or against us, I reckon the safest place for you, and the best place for the rest of us for you to be would be in the new galley." Captain Gallagher told Shareef. "It's right in the center of the ship, and so is the best protected of all the spaces except the magazine." Captain Gallagher added. "Besides which, you'll be keeping the crew both healthy and happier if it was you doing the cooking for a change, if you please, Mister Shareef."

"Under those conditions, Captain Gallagher, I accept your generous offer of hospitality." Shareef replied, a bright and familiar smile lighting up his somewhat darker olive skinned face.


	28. Forging Deals

Shibu's hammer blows seem to ring out across the white city like the chimes of some great clock tower.

There was no denying that he was happy in his work, as he stood before a forge that had been specially built for him in almost the exact center of Bonta. There was a dense and ever moving ring of people around the forge itself as Shibu worked. People brought in requests for work in iron, steel, bronze, copper, and even gold to the best-known Smith in all of the white city.

Shibu was far too focused on his craft to take much notice of the milling crowd. There were ironmongers, and other dealers in metal who would gladly take the orders, all the while arguing among themselves for the lowest bids possible. The written orders, and the materials purchased to fulfill them were then laid out on a long series of wooden tables, safely back from the roaring flames of the forge which could and would burn them for fuel if the fire had its way.

Shibu's day began with him picking up the very first order, for a section of decorative wrought iron gate twisted into a bizarre black sculpture by the lightning charged fingers of the great storm in the days past over Bonta. Most of the original piece was now absolutely useless scrap, but Shibu tossed it onto the forge, and had actually managed to separate some usable bits and pieces from what had become twisted wreckage. The order itself came with a dozen bars of true and heavy black wrought iron, some of them forged by Shibu himself, and placed in Bonta's reserve of supplies for repairs done around the city.

Re-forming the simple square gate was something that Shibu could almost do without the blacksmiths trademark hammer. But on this day, Shibu understood that the sound and the sensation as well as the sight of hammer, and hard, glowing iron were all things that people needed to see. For these were signs of renewal, and life returned to normal, which was what people really wanted so badly.

So Shibu fell into his work, in part switching off his mind, and switching on the muscle memory that let him create works in metal both simple and complex more by reflex than by critical consideration.

For minutes at first, and then for hours as the morning grew longer toward noon, Shibu was more machine than he was the individual whom most Bontarians knew so well.

At some point about mid-morning, Shibu felt the warm fingers of the fiery forge creep through his cool red and silver silks, and he knew the moment had come.

As an ever enlarging circle of ladies, girls, and children watched the fiery spectacle in fascination, Shibu loosened the silver buckle on the belt which held his light two-piece outfit together at the waist. The belt itself helped him retain the light silk wraps around his waist and legs, along with his modesty. But when Shibu rolled back his thick shoulders to strip the upper part of his trademark outfit, he was conscious of a wave of merry whistles and a light but sustained ripple of applause from the onlookers standing close enough to his forge to feel its heat right along with Shibu.

The gentle breeze that usually came with a Bontarian dawn had melted away like morning mist long before the noon hour. So Shibu's only method for cooling off occasionally was to step out of the enfolding blanket of warm air woven by the forge, and into the slightly cooler atmosphere near the tables, where the orders, and the metal waited the will and skill of the blacksmith.

Shibu was grateful for even this whisper of relief, as he felt both his reflexes and his mind pour itself into the work at hand, as if Shibu had become nothing more than another of the great bags of coal, coke, and charcoal that went to feed the fiery gluttony of the forge.

Soon, the entire section of Plaza where the forge had been erected rang with sets of rhythmic hammer blows as Shibu melded his strength with his craftsman's skill and reflexes. Very quickly, another set of tables across the circular plaza from the forge was beginning to stack up with completed orders. These were mostly left alone to cool and set, before they were picked up by a line of assistant blacksmiths, and returned, along with the written order to the individuals, or to the construction gangs which had placed the orders at the start of the morning.

As he worked, his thinking mind did no more than act as a governor for his reflexes, for most of his work on this morning was really nothing more than reflex and force of habit.

This allowed Shibu to turn his higher mind to other matters as he worked. This was his custom, as he seemed to think more deeply and better while his body was engaged in physical activity of any sort.

Shibu was well satisfied with his progress, as were the mesmerized citizens of Bonta, who seemed to take visible pleasure and relief from watching Shibu ply not only his trade, but also apply his unique sense of craftsmanship to whatever job he did.

While part of his mind thought about potion making, to help those still in need after the storm, Shibu's hammer seemed to pound out a steady rhythm which helped Shibu to think. But his mind was not all about hot iron, nor cooling potions. As he worked through the morning, and toward the noon hour, when he would stop for a few minutes along with everyone else to take food and drink, Shibu found himself concentrating more and more on Shareef.

The needed work of the morning had divided the brothers one from another once again, for the sake of something larger than both of them. But Shibu had been the first to feel and understand how much lighter a workload could be, and even how much stronger he could be, when the two of them were close together.

Shibu's mind flashed back to that unique moment on the Dragon Tooth Shoals, where he had looked into Shareef's green eyes for the very first time, and what that mere glance had taught him, in only a fraction of a second worth of time, which seem to last for sweet minutes unending.

Shibu and Shareef had both freely acknowledged in that moment that the two of them were missing parts each of the other. And that the moment of their coming together had profoundly changed the way both of them saw, felt, and lived their lives from moment to moment.

Shibu had now been better than the third of a day without his brother. While Shibu's physical strength never wavered, Shibu could feel the growing and uneasy sensation that something was missing, that something was the matter. It was the same quiet sense of something missing that one had just before their tongue found a missing tooth in the familiar contours of the mouth and jaw. Only this sensation ran much deeper, and Shibu quickly discovered that thinking of Shareef in any way brought him a moment of renewed strength, that let him ring just one more machine like hammer blow from the anvil and hammer in his hands.

Shibu could see the shadows of the assembled crowd growing shorter, as he use them like makeshift sundials to sense the passage of time.  
He was working on an order for some barrel hoops from one of the local coopers whom he knew well, when, all of a sudden, for the first time in several hours Shibu felt a finger of fatigue reach up and tap him heavily across his brawny shoulders.

He finished the hoops by reflex alone, as he had for dozens and hundreds more for his friend who made casks and barrels of all sorts.

But this time, when the consignment of metal rings was finished, and hung up on an iron rack to cool, rather than stride purposefully toward the table still stacked with orders and material, Shibu paused, and lay down his large hammer on the toe of his anvil.

Shibu turned, and made a quick step toward a smaller table that had been set out on the edge of the circle near the crowd around the edge of the forge. This table was set with a huge water bucket, made by the young cooper for whom Shibu had just finished the set of hoops. Alongside the bucket was a fine, large China plate, closer to the size of a serving tray than a standard plate used at the table. The plate was stacked high with chilled fruits, cold meat, soft bread, and Shibu's favorite breakfast of them all, light and airy eggs, scrambled as only his mother knew how, mixed with bits of meat, peppers, and olives. 

Shibu had left his breakfast untouched in favor of beginning what he knew would be a heavy day of work. But now he could no longer ignore both the sensations he received from his physical body and from his heart. Good work, well done, needed as much fuel for the blacksmith as for the forge itself.

* * *

Once their plans were set, Daniel and Shane fell in dutifully with the members of Shareef's crew. At first, their travel was easier, because reaching the next, and most important ship in the fleet required no more than a few yards of walking to reach the next slip in the dry dock.

The Majestic was refitting, just as their own ship was, and there was an easy, sociable atmosphere between the yard workers, the ship crews, and the artisans who labored together on problems large and small for each of the ships in turn. This fraternity allowed Shareef's friends to pass easily between ships laid up in the dry dock, as each of them helped pass and carry provisions and parts from ship to ship.

Mister Steptoe, and the pair of camouflaged Cra "sailors" were waived up the broad gangway of the Majestic without even a second look from the deck watch, who kept a loose eye on the decks of the much larger vessel.

Like the other ships of her type, the Majestic was fitted out as a trading ship, whose huge beam and shallow draft could take on enough cargo to supply half the city for nearly an entire day. But, the Majestic also mounted one dozen intimidating twelve pound cannons, six to a side, port and starboard. The general understanding by treaty, among the city states of the World of the Twelve never endorsed or promoted piracy. But the Majestic's dozen imposing guns kept free booters and looters at a safe and fairly respectful distance, unless the large vessel had a standing contract for trade with whomever approached her.

Steptoe's presence was the great key which opened every door aboard the larger ship, including the one below decks that mattered most. The captain's cabin was meant to be both imposing and ostentatious, and as Silas Jackson set his guests down around his own desk for a parlay, trays of food, and huge silver goblets of beverage seem to appear with scarcely a look from the ship's Master.

For this was the heart of how deals were done between Master mariners and expert traders, who drew life and wealth both from the sea, and from the occasional touch upon dry land, in order to both take on and discharge everything imaginable needed by all the races of the World of the Twelve.

The negotiations began with the sad news about Captain Soames. It was a moment of shared regret for both of them, as the master of the Majestic had begun his career at sea in exactly the same manner as Shareef himself.

After a round of sober toasts to his memory were offered and consumed, in water, this time, for Shareef's sake. Shareef moved quickly to the true intentions of Commodore Mendoza and the balance of his squadron.

Jackson, a tall, willowy man with a beard as dense as Gobball wool and bright Hazel eyes was a Captain with a quarter Century of experience, both with men, and with ships. He took in Shareef's pronouncement with a keen eye, and a critical ear. But he was also inclined to believe the second officer of the Gypsy Star, as Steptoe made good proof of everything he said to the captain of the big sloop.

At just the right moment in the negotiation, with a steady drawl that the Captain had heard before, Steptoe drew out the offer of service and pardon, rather than slaughter and blood to the Master and crew of the Majestic. He accepted readily, for his ships complement was better than fifty hands, and sacking a major city like Bonta seemed to the master of the vessel to be a waste of fine lives, and good powder and ball without the promise of any real return for the investment which he would be asking his crew to make.

Jackson sought nothing for himself, although the formal commission as an officer of Bonta carried with it a handsome salary, augmented generously by the value of peacetime trade. The ship's master knew that his crew was of the same mind, looking, as they all were, for a place ashore as well as at sea, that would offer them a home, and a sound livelihood upon which the younger men could found their futures, and upon which the older men could stake comfortable retirement, within the sight and sounds of the sea where most of the best memories lived even longer than sailors themselves.

The parlay consumed the better part of an hour, and was sealed both in ink, and in drink, as was the finest nautical tradition.

Very quietly, with an order no louder than a whisper, Commodore Jaclson ordered his first officer to hoist a fair weather pendant. The ship's master also added two of his most trusted crew to the assembly that accompanied Steptoe and the two young archers.

As the enlarged group returned to the quai at the base of the Majestic's gangway, they split into groups of two and three, in order to make the work of contacting the other ship captains in dry dock move more quickly, and also making their network more secure. Masters and sailors who had shipped together in the past and who knew one another were trusted better than family aboard whole fleets of ships.  
The words of their brothers brought needed truth and gravity to the situation presented to each and every crew and Master in the dry dock.

As the dog watch fell over the shipyard that evening at sunset, every slip in the Bontarian dry dock was filled with a ship flying a fair weather pendant from her mainmast!

And it was Mister Steptoe, along with Daniel and Shane, who led not a group of sailors nor Masters back toward the Majestic near to sunset. For the decision had been taken that the first meeting of the officers corps of the Bontarian Navy should take place aboard the flagship of the fleet, the Majestic, and under the eyes, and the pen of the Bontarian fleet's newest Commodore. Jackson took up the mantle quietly, without bluster, flags or fanfare. Rather, he pronounced another toast to his late mentor and friend. Following his lead, Jackson's crew of two score Men of the Sea voted to stand with Bonta when the best moment to defend her would present itself.

As the bright orange disc of an afternoon sun seemed to extinguish itself in the cool waters of the harbor, Shareef himself was well satisfied. Not only had his friends returned completely unscathed from their dangerous mission, but Shareef could return to both his King, and his brother to report gladly that for the first time since Mendoza's serpentine appearance, the city of Bonta had crafted herself a chance at resisting piracy, both by sea, and upon the land which every ship's crew in the dry dock could now call home.

For Shareef himself, he felt an odd pull from within, as he walked back down the gangplank of the Gypsy Star II, out into the dry dock at a leisurely walk, accompanied by both Daniel and Shane, who had acquitted themselves well enough this day to have helped save an entire Kingdom from the venomous strike of piracy.

Daniel and Shane were set on duty inside the great doors which formed the base of Shibu's tower, while Shareef ascended a familiar iron staircase to the apartment rooms where he would gladly prepare one more course of meals this day. The most important meals of them all, not those taken at any specific time of the day, but the sustenance that would sustain his new family, and by extension, their new home, together.

By the time Shareef had allowed his galley reflexes full play, the entire tower issued an entire set of appetizing and enticing scents which emanated from vast quantities of roast gobby, yard long baguettes of soft but crusty bread, and enough beverage to re-float the entirety of the new Bontarian Navy.

Shareef had cooked as he had always done, for everyone he could think of, and at the same time, for everyone whom he cared for.  
When is cooking was truly done, and he had laid aside the very last cleaned dish, and spotless re-sharpened carving knives, Shareef needed only one thing to bring a perfect end to a day filled with tension and heavy weight of the heart.

Shareef needed his family, and somehow, without sending word for them to come, Shareef could feel them approaching, as sure and certain as his own heartbeat. As he turned his thoughts to Shibu, Felice, and Cici, Shareef welcomed his smile.


	29. Finding the Range

As Shareef put the last touches on the meal for his family, he felt a strange sensation touch him, as if someone he knew well had whispered something in his ear, but he wasn't paying attention well enough to distinguish the words.

He turned from the properly set table toward the window, now filled with the first shadows from rising moonlight rather than the sun.  
Suddenly, the room itself seem to be filled with an explosion of light that rivaled another sunrise for just a moment.

Shareef's feline reflexes pulled him up, back and out of the way as a single bright green shaft of light illuminated the entire tower room.  
Something seemed to wash the green light from his eyes, and suddenly everything he could see was lit with a vivid but light pale blue!

Through his new vision, Shareef could discern four figures, each of whom had a grip on the shaft of radiant light. Shareef felt his heart skip once, and the impulse to defend himself drained away as he recognized one figure among the four.

For a moment, Shareef blinked and shook his head softly. His normal site was restored a moment later, as the green shaft of light seemed to fade, extinguishing itself like a snuffed candle flame.  
Shareef's first reaction came from his voice, as he spoke a familiar name.

"Cici?" Shareef said in a moment of complete shock and surprise.

"Duck Shareef!" Was all that Cici had time to shout before the entire floor space of the apartment room seem to be populated with shimmering green arrows which Shareef had learned to recognize from Shibu.

Instantly, the small apartment room was so filled with archers that Shareef himself was pushed back toward the kitchen and hearth, around the corner and through the high arch of the doorway!

As Shareef fought to keep himself from falling over, he caught sight of one group of four archers, like each of the others that went with the other arrows of recall. Before Shareef could breathe again, is significantly smaller space was filled with almost one hundred unexpected guests!

"My stars!" Shareef exclaimed as he grabbed hold of the stone archway which formed the door to the kitchen, and held on for dear life. He managed to pull himself fully upright and steady again, as Cici found herself peeking out from between two flour barrels set into the alcove of the dining room as extra seating.

"I see you brought friends home for supper, big sister!" Shareef said as he and Cici finally made eye contact across the crowded room.

Shareef's nonchalant greeting gave Cici her first reason all day to smile, and to share the emotion which was authentic to the gesture.

Cici was up in a moment, steady on one knee as she made of vaulting jump that sent her almost to the ceiling of the vaulted room, and across it toward the archway door where Shareef was standing.

The next thing Shareef knew, he was entwined in Cici's svelte arms, and being picked up above the familiar redhead before being swept into a strong but loving hug from his sister.

"I'm so sorry, Shareef!" Cici said, using her Ranger sight to check Shareef over for signs of injury or damage. "That first arrow wasn't mine, but it was the target for all the others." Cici explained quickly. "We had to think of a way to get reinforcements into the city without being seen. I didn't know that there would be anyone here. I thought you'd be with Shibu." Cici explained quickly, the tumbling rush of her words exercising the momentary fear which she had felt for Shareef's well-being.

"As far as I know, Sis, Shibu is still at his forge near the center of Bonta. I haven't seen him all day, nor have I seen Felice." Shareef replied more calmly. "I was heartsick and lonely, and I wanted to surprise you all with our first dinner as a family." Shareef told Cici tenderly as he returned her warm and gentle embrace.

"You really are a sweetheart, Shareef." Cici answered gently, kissing Shareef gently on his nose, and then in the middle of his forehead.

"I'm sorry the Cra Council stepped in the stew." Cici told him with gentle and apologetic gratitude.

"I'm a little short on stew." Shareef replied casually. "But there is plenty of roast gobby, and fresh bread, along with some good sparkling water that Shibu makes here at home." Shareef replied, as he looked around the now crowded room, which was packed so densely he could no longer see the table he had set, nor the food set upon it.

"Welcome home, big Sis." Shareef said gently. "You and your friends must be starving. Go ahead, and dig right on in. Don't stand on ceremony." Shareef told Cici as he returned the soft kiss to Cici's nose, and slipped gently out of her embrace, turning toward the kitchen once again.

"Where in the world are you going, little brother?" Cici asked, half in confusion, and half in fascination.

"Cooking for large crews is my specialty, big sister mine." Shareef replied amiably. "I go where I'm most needed. "Back to the kitchen." Shareef replied. "Your job is the more difficult one. Organize our guests into relays, while I prepare the food we'll need."

Shareef's attitude, as much as his casual resolve at the challenge of having to abruptly feed one hundred people showed in both Cici's bright smile, and her own renewed determination, as she stood up, shouldered her bow, and took charge of what had suddenly become a not so small mess hall!

* * *

Felice was done for the day almost as soon as the sun began to dip toward the cool waters of the ocean.  
It had been a thankfully light day for Bonta's best healer, and her corps of Enripsa nurses.

Here and there, a banged thumb, or a twisted ankle when someone had set a wrong foot on the rungs of a ladder.  
Felice left the paperwork and follow-up care of the injured to her assistants as the first aid station close down for the day, and Felice found herself soaring back toward Bonta Castle as fast as she could fly.

She had been bothered by an uneasy feeling all afternoon long. And the sensation was now something that she could no longer simply push away while there was so much work in front of her.

Felice wanted and needed to see her family, for deep down inside, where her heart met her wings, she had a sensation of foreboding that simply would not pass away, until she set eyes on all of them again.  
No one in the core of Enripsa healers begrudged their most senior member and "den mother" a spare moment or two to herself.  
So Felice pushed aside the pile of paperwork, passing it into younger hands, and setting herself free to fly.

Even though Felice was no longer as young as she had been when she first set eyes on Bonta Castle, she knew the way home by instinct alone, and could still fly faster and farther than an entire flight of hummingbirds when the occasion called for it.  
This was one such occasion. Felice became like an arrowhead, attached to one of Cici's best cloth yard shafts. Her soaring determination and her experience actually beat a path of welcome draft along the ground over which she flew as she made an absolutely straight line for the castle.

None of the Royal guard needed to clear her, nor did they even see the fine splinter of Silver light that illuminated Felice's path across the sunset.

She flew directly toward the balcony window of Shibu's tower, landing there what seemed like only a moment later, with the white city spread out below her like an illuminated page from an ancient book. 

She took one look back, nodded with satisfaction, and then stepped through the unique double doors which had been installed by carpenters in the palace in place of the normal triangular windows.

"Shibu? Shareef? Where-" Felice began to call out, but was brought up short by the sight of a battalion of archers fairly carpeting the great stone room that had become her family's living room!

"My stars!" Felice exclaimed. "Cici must have decided on a girls night, and forgotten to tell me." Felice said to herself as she basked for a moment in the vision of more than a hundred sleek well muscled, and mostly masculine archers, who now sat on long rows of flour barrels, facing sets of parallel boards set out like slats upon which their plates, tableware, and glasses rested as the entire battalion focused more on food than upon courtly table manners.

"Down here Felice!" Called Cici's strong, clear voice over the subtle din of cups, knives, and plates rattling as the Battalion refueled itself.

"Thank Enripsa!" Felice said to herself softly, as she sprang from the inside platform of the balcony, and looped down over the full room as if she was a fallen leaf in autumn.

In a moment, Cici was up, springing to her feet from her own private flour barrel place setting, and giving Felice a gentle place to land as Felice seemed to fold herself gracefully into Cici's waiting arms.

"Hello dearest." Cici said gently without any trace of surprise or upset in her voice. "I like a good party too." Felice replied as she embraced Cici warmly.

"But if you had told me, I might've at least brought dessert for our new Legion of admirers." Felice remarked, with a merry twinkle in her voice which matched the one in her eyes.

"You don't have to worry about that, Felice." Cici answered. "We have in our midst a worker of miracles, who fed all these you see, and made them a place to eat with anything and everything he could find." Cici explained proudly. "After tonight, and watching Shareef in action, we not only have another Ranger in our midst, but quite possibly the best cook in the entire Kingdom, present company excepted." Cici very nearly gushed.

"Hi mom, you hungry at all? We've still got plenty, and I managed rice custard for dessert." Said a familiar voice.

Felice took Shareef at his word, not standing at all on ceremony as she reached down just a bit, and swept Shareef into a full body hug, over which Felice folded her wings gently against her boy.

"Shareef, my son!" Felice exclaimed warmly. "I'm fine dearest, but I will try some of that rice custard once it gets cooler." Felice remarked, punctuating her greeting with soft kisses left on Shareef's forehead, high cheekbones, and of course his nose.

Felice managed to look away from her boy, and get a ground level view of the handsome multitude of archers who now filled the family living room to near capacity and beyond. "You managed all of this by yourself, Shareef?" Felice asked with an obvious note of pride in her voice.

"Oh no mom!" Shareef answered quickly. "I had a hundred and one sets of hands to help me. You could say we did it together. All I did was the cooking that I normally do, or did aboard ship for three watches worth of the crew." Shareef explained simply, and without any trace of excessive pride or ego.

"Oh, don't you believe him, Felice." Cici retorted fast. "Before he began cooking, he was already juggling boards and barrels to make seats for ten at a time, and all the rest. I've never seen anyone move like Shareef does. Not even our Shibu." Cici stated flatly as a matter of fact. "That's why I know he's already Ranger material. Once he gets the training, I'm almost afraid of what he and Shibu could do together if they put their minds to it." Cici continued. "And on top of everything else he made look so easy, the food is fantastic!"

Cici paused to catch her breath, after adding the supreme complement to the chef of the evening. Cici reached out and snagged another meat pie, dipping it in the sauce with gusto before demolishing it in two quick bites!

She smiled as she swallowed daintily, and then decided to put another cherry on Shareef's cake.

"Some of the guys in the first relay were offering to trade promotions for the chance to come in here again and get second helpings. Honestly, Shareef I think this entire battalion will protect you just as much as Bonta herself if it comes down to that."

This pronouncement made both Shareef and Felice giggle as though both of them had been tickled. The humor in the genuine pronouncements of warmth had broken the heavy feel of the day, and even in the midst of a battalion of Cra archers, Felice could feel her tension draining away, as quickly as her other senses filled with the scent of the food on so many plates.

But Felice wasn't the first, or the only one to sense that someone and something was still missing from this evening.

"Have you seen Shibu at all today, Mom?" Shareef asked Felice, all at once. His voice and his manner instantly switching from free-flowing joviality to a sweet and gentle vulnerability that once again melted Felice's heart, and flowed right down to her soul.

"No, Shareef." Felice answered as quickly and simply as she could without bringing Shareef any more anxiety than was already in his voice. "I worked at the first aid station, on the other side of the city, moving along with the work gangs. I haven't seen Shibu all day, and yes, I'm as worried about him as you are, dearest Shareef." Felice replied in a truthful but reassuring tone, as she saw the mist begin to collect in Shareef's bright green eyes.

"I've got a good mind to send the Royal guard looking for him." Felice continued with a strong note of determination and confidence, as much for herself as for Shareef and Cici.

"No need for that, Felice." Cici answered quickly. "I brought someone else back with me from the Cra city." Cici explained fast. No sooner was she done speaking then she raised her voice and tone slightly to be heard above the clatter of plates and dishes within the wide stone room.

"Master Chang?" Cici called out plainly. "Please feel free to join us, if you will."

No sooner had the words past her lips then there was a bright shimmer of Silver light almost like a flame freed from a candle, which appeared close to them, and settled down toward the floor, touching the white stones gently before becoming corporeal in the form of a tall, robbed figure, whose bright silver eyes, and nearly seven foot stature seemed to bring a new light and energy into the crowded room, as if the space within the tower room itself had become infinite, and was refreshed with new space, air, and light.

"Greetings, venerable Master. Your presence has been much missed these last few troubled days." Shareef told Master Chang with a relieved smile at the mere sight of Bonta's most Senior Sage.

"Greetings to our young sand cat of the green eyes." Master Chang said with a stately bow. "It is pleasant to be in the company of family once more, is it not, young Squire?" The Sage inquired gently of Shareef.

"It is indeed, oh venerable one." Shareef replied with the height of good manners.

"Master Chang?" Felice asked gently.

The silver eyed Sage swept gentle eyes over the Enripsa healer, and he could feel the anxiety within Shibu's mother.

"How may I serve you, Lady Felice?" The senior Sage inquired formally, while he kept his voice and tone casual and friendly.

"I beg your help in putting to rest a mothers worry for her son at the end of a busy day. Forgive me for troubling you, great Master." Felice told Master Chang.

"I would have been worried all the more had you not asked my aid, which I shall always freely give to this family, and to the greater kingdom of Bonta." Master Chang replied, his tone both steady and reassuring. "What shall we do, lady Felice of Bonta?" The gentle silver eyed figure asked of her.

"Can you take me, or send me to wherever he is just now?" Felice asked quietly. "Wherever he is, I would fetch him home. For this is where he needs to be, for both this family, and for Bonta."

"No request ever comes more pure and clean than that from the heart of a mother." Master Chang replied sympathetically, extending a great leather skinned brown hand towards Felice. "Bear but a touch of my palm, and the three of us shall be brought together." The Master Sage instructed gently.

Felice nodded eagerly, and dipped a finger as gentle as a feather into the very center of the sage's upturned palm.

There was a momentary flash of silvery white light within the seemingly infinite space which the tower room had seemed to become. But now, that same infinite space seem to collapse, folding in upon itself again and again, until it was a different space altogether, and in quite a different place.

Felice's searching eyes were the first to see him, and when she did so, Felice had to stifle her voice along with her surprise.

The duo of Mother and Master stood quietly beside the miniature mountain of fire which was Shibu's Forge. The blacksmith had banked the great forge to last through the evening, and into the next morning, to avoid the time and the wait that would be required to restart and refuel the working fire.

Shibu himself sat upon a familiar three-legged stool, his arms folded in front of him as a pillow for his head as it laid upon his anvil. Shibu himself was soundly asleep, as if nothing in the kingdom, or the world would or could ever touch him with an intent to do him harm.  
Some kind soul had collected the top half of Shibu's silken costume, and draped it across his shoulders, evidently as he slept there, completely undisturbed by the kind and gentle passerby.

The sight of Shibu having put himself so deeply into his work that he had fallen asleep at the forge after the last hammer blow of the day moved Felice to a gentle and devoted flow of tears.

All that Shibu's mother could manage to do was to glance sidelong toward the Sage at her side, and Shibu was already floating up off of his seat and away from his forge, settling in Master Chang's arms. Once he lay there, Shibu's red and silver silks glimmered with a silver outline as his jacket enfolded Shibu once more, as if they were his second skin.

Only once he rested in Master Chang's arms did Shibu's hand turn loose of the hammer. It fell, but did not strike the stone, but floated back into its usual place at the center of the anvil where Shibu's head had rested a moment before.

Felice began a thought of mixed thanks and thanksgiving toward the elder Sage. But before her mind could finish it, space was folding once more around about them, and then unfolding at the same moment back into the shape and form of the large room within the tower where the rest of the family waited.

In only a moment, Felice and Master Chang stood before them once more, with an extra passenger in tow.

Shareef was suddenly so delighted and so much at peace to be in sight of Shibu that he began to raise his voice, until Cici softly but insistently covered his mouth gently with a gloved hand, gesturing again toward the sleeping form of Shibu cradled in Master Chang's arms. Shareef exhaled slowly, and nodded toward Cici, who took her hand gently away from Shareef's mouth, to put a finger to her lips, in the universal sign for quiet.

Shareef stood up in absolute silence, moving in the best Ranger fashion, as he held out his own arms, and accepted the sleeping figure of his brother from the arms of Master Chang.

Without speaking a word, and without having to, Shareef made a quick and utterly silent step across the white stone floor, through another pair of archways, whereupon Shareef laid Shibu down as tenderly as a baby bird, and covered him with a full spread of the thick heavy Royal quilt which adorned their round bed.

Shareef rose gently from the bedside, after kissing his brothers cheeks tenderly, and leaving Shibu to sleep soundly.

Then, with a Ranger sign of two upraised fingers pointing out of the room silently, it was Shareef who led the balance of the family not back into the great sitting room turned mess hall, but into another smaller room lined with books and laboratory equipment.

Here, in Shibu's potion room, the family could at last speak openly among themselves without being overheard by accident or design.  
As he sat down in one of the comfy high-backed chairs which decorated the edges of the laboratory, Shareef found himself fighting hard against the impulse to simply join his brother in bed, leaving the finished day behind, and forget about the rest of the world beyond the room, and beyond their family.

But Shareef knew better than anyone that this day had been an act of prelude to what might become a far larger and deadlier drama in the days ahead. Between them all, they had much thought, and much work ahead of them. Before the next day came, or before any of them could rest alongside Shibu.


	30. Private Quarters

Shibu awoke smoothly and quietly, surrounded by comfortable warmth. It was a very pleasant change from the slight bite of the cool night air blowing in from the sea. He sat up quickly, checking himself as he moved, as usual for a Ranger upon awakening. The only thing that brought him even a minor twinge of pain were his hands. For a moment he realized how lucky he was to have Felice for a mother. The worst blisters from the hammer and forge were only a momentary exercise for his mother's Enripsa brushes.

It was then that he noticed that the room around about him was both dark and quiet. His range of senses had also cast themselves into the other rooms of his apartment. They too were unusually quiet, given the events of the day.

"Good evening Shibu." A familiar voice said with gentle softness. It was a tone Shibu had come to recognize as much is anyone's voice in his family.

"Hi Felicity!" Shibu answered in a bright but gentle whisper, intended to keep the silence for anyone else who might be sleeping in the adjoining rooms.

"Where is everyone?" Shibu wanted to know. "It's almost too quiet around here." Shibu observed as he moved to peel back the huge but comfortable weight of the satin sheets and Royal quilt that threatened to smother him with a friendly and pleasant warm softness.

"Take it easy, Mister Ranger Sir Shibu." Felicity replied tartly. "They are all off playing nice in court, talking to the King about what happened today." Felicity told him, almost too casually.

"Ohmygosh!" Shibu replied, as he suddenly move much faster to unwind himself from the bed. "I need to be there!" Shibu continued as he made a diving grab for his red and silver silks, which were by coincidence folded neatly on the corner of his bedside table.

"Not so fast, Sir Knight. You owe an explanation to a lady. That's your first duty tonight." Felicity almost snapped.

The light of the newly risen but pale moon cast just enough natural light into the bedchamber for Shibu to get a good look at Felicity's face without using his natural ability to sense Wakfu.

Felicity had been crying. Not long, nor deep, but the tracks of the tears which had rolled freely down her cheeks left a sheen of their own below her eyes, which helped in an odd way to light up her face in the pale moonlight.

"All right Felicity, I'm listening." Shibu replied as gently and tenderly as he could, not wishing to upset Felicity any further.

"I don't want you listening, Mister famous knight, and ballplayer. I want to hear you talking. To me, about us." Felicity replied shortly. Then she fell silent, waiting for Shibu to pick up his end of the conversation.

"Felicity, I've been wrong to treat you and your emotions in the way that I have." Shibu confessed to the Enripsa who was sitting across the room from him on a comfortable overstuffed chair.

"Well it's about time!" Felicity retorted, this time speaking a bit more sharply while still trying to keep her voice down. "Do you think I tell every male on two legs that I meet that I love them?" Felicity asked. "I know what's been going on around here, and I don't mean pirates attacking Bonta. Felicity went on. "You've been avoiding me ever since I told you how I feel." The young Enripsa complained. "It's a fine way to treat someone who gives you their most precious gift."

Shibu felt a sudden pang of deeper guilt than he thought he might. He took a moment to inhale deeply before he replied, gathering his words carefully before he spoke again.

"I know, Felicity. And I'm so thankful for all your gifts, and all the help you've given to my brother and to my family. I don't mean to hurt you, and I think you know that." Shibu replied. "But I think you also know that as much as I do love you, my heart is no longer entirely my own to give, or to take back from others so that I can give it to one person alone." Shibu told Felicity slowly and carefully, fighting with his own mind to avoid the use of negatives to tell Felicity the truth about what she hoped their relationship could be.

"I love you as much as I do Felice, Cici, or Shareef." Shibu explained quietly. "In my heart, you are my sister, and I love you more than you can understand. But just as I can't pick one member of my family to love more than the others, I can't promise you the totality of my heart, as much as you are in it already." Shibu told her gently. This time, after he was finished speaking, Shibu got up from the bed, and moved toward Felicity with a gentle quick step.  
Felicity's mind was still processing Shibu's words when she caught sight of Shibu's nude form, perfectly illuminated by the rising moonlight.

"She-boo?" Felicity said slowly.

"Yes, dearest Felicity?"

"You're the most beautiful person I can imagine, or that I want to imagine. No one in this whole world is more perfect in my eyes then you." Felicity confessed. As she spoke she half rose from the enfolding comfort of the overstuffed chair, sitting forward and holding out her open arms to Shibu.

"Hold me, please, handsome?" Felicity whispered to Shibu.  
In the next moment, Felicity was cradled almost like a child's toy in Shibu's strong but gentle embrace. She relished his shorter and much more dense physical form, snuggling into his embrace like a contented kitten who had found the perfect warm spot in front of the hearth.

This time, she had nothing to hold back. Felicity tilted her head bringing their lips together gently as she kissed him full and sweet on the mouth, and held it, so no one in the world, especially Shibu would ever consider it simply a casual act.

Part of Shibu melted, as Felicity made the kiss feel good, as she made sure it would also linger for a good long while. She folded her arms around his muscular shoulders, and simply let herself relax, abandoning all the fear and anxiety that had been there just a moment before.

Shibu's hands were both rough and tender. Felicity could feel the spots on the palms of his hands, and his fingers where the blisters had been after a day with a hammer, and an evening filled with gentle healing from his mother.

Felicity held the kiss insistently, until Shibu relaxed in the same way she had done. So their mutual embrace became an act of mutual devotion, rather than an act made more difficult by unrequited feelings, one for the other.

Felicity broke the kiss, leaving Shibu warm and tingly all over, without the need for the royal quilt.

"I know where your heart is, my beautiful handsome Shibu. I'm not as greedy as some would make me out to be." She told him in a gentle whisper voiced only a fraction of an inch from his nose. "I could never hurt you by demanding all of your heart just for myself. But I need you to understand that your family are not the only ones who would do anything for you, simply because I love you, Shibu."

Felicity told him as she hugged him to her, folding her own arms gently around his head. To make sure he heard it, and to make sure he could feel it, Felicity whispered once more into Shibu's ear tenderly.

"I love you, Shibu." Felicity whispered again in a strong, loving way that Shibu would have been able to hear, even without his ears.

"Thank you, sweet Felicity." Shibu answered. "I love you too. I'm just sorry I couldn't say it before now." Shibu apologized.

"It's all right, Shibu Darling." Felicity replied. "I understand, and I also understand that you and Shareef are just as much in love as I am with you. And that's all right."

Shibu felt so weak for just a span of a single heartbeat that his mind worried about dropping Felicity, although his body would have never permitted it.

"How long have you known, Felicity?" Shibu asked quietly.

"You boys can't fool us girls, Shibu." Felicity replied sweetly, kissing Shibu gently on the nose as she spoke.

"The first time I saw you two together in the hospital, you were both so simple and sweet to each other that the curtains alone could never hide what you feel for each other." Felicity explained sweetly to a wide-eyed Shibu, who's wonderfully surprised expression was illuminated by the same rare moonlight which lit up his body for Felicity to admire.

"Like I said before." Felicity began again. "I could never be such a beast as to come between you, or to be so silly as to try to force you to choose between Shareef and me. I love you way too much to do anything so cruel to a pair of such beautiful souls as the two of you." Felicity observed, as she stayed snuggled up into Shibu's broad chest.

After a moment, she reached up tenderly, tilted Shibu's chin down just a bit, and kissed him with a wonderful tenderness once again, leaving no doubt at all who was the master of her heart.

"Well darling, now that that's settled, if you want to run around being everyone's hero, I do have one word of advice." Felicity whispered lovingly to Shibu. "As much as I admire the view, hadn't Bonta's hero best put his clothes on first?" Felicity asked playfully with a smile that gleamed in Shibu's blue eyes as much as did the pale moonlight.

Felicity fell not to the hard stone floor, but she dropped tenderly on to the huge round bed, which Shibu had left pleasantly warm, well scented, and as comfortable as her best dreams.

Felicity was laughing so hard as Shibu made a dive for his red and silver silks that she had to pull the thickness of the royal quilt up over her head to keep her laughter from wakening not only the balance of her new family, but all of Bonta as well!

As Felicity slowly peeled back the quilt, and sucked in another heavy breath to keep from turning blue, she giggled lightly at Shibu, and winked at him as Bonta's newest knight strove to restore his modesty!

"Now that's the Shibu I know and love!" Felicity said with a moonlit twinkle in her eyes.

Felicity slowly peeled back the quilt, and gently rolled off of the round bed in front of Shibu. She gently moved his hands away from his silver belt buckle, and adjusted the tension perfectly, in a way that Shibu's quivering fingers could not manage for the moment.

After he was perfectly attired in his trademark costume, Felicity moved in gently, and kissed him sweetly on both cheeks, and then, in the family tradition, ever so gently on his nose.

"There now." Felicity said softly. "There's my Shibu, the handsome knight who holds every heart in Bonta, including my own." Felicity whispered gently to Shibu.

And then she paused long enough to take a ribbon of thin damasque weave from around her waist. In a moment of need, any Enripsa could convert the fine cloth into any number of life-saving aids. But this time, Felicity took her own belt, and gently tied it around Shibu's waist, readjusting his belt slightly so that the fine fabric beneath the belt would be hidden from common sight.

"Now that you have our talisman, Sir Shibu, we shall watch with great fondness your nobility and bravery in battles of all sorts. Go forth, Sir Knight, and kindly remember the favor of one who loves you so well." Felicity whispered gently to Shibu, before pecking him just once more gently on his cheek.

"It isn't quite a slap, Sir Shibu." Felicity told him softly. "But you shall forever be my own knight in red and silver silken armor."

Shibu smiled, suddenly realizing just exactly how much he really did love the gentle and kind soul which Felicity could be.

"As you wish." Replied Shibu as he embraced her softly, returned a kiss playfully to her nose, and move toward the door, and back into the world beyond it. But not before he paused at the door, looked back, and blew Felicity a soft and gentle kiss, along with a cute smile that gleamed softly in the risen moonlight.

As soon as Shibu was out of sight, dashing fast down the stone arched tunnel which connected his tower with Bonta Castle, he decided to speed things up even more. Deep in the tunnel, where even the torches burned low, he stopped, looked around him, and made a subtle gesture with just two fingers rather than the ostentatious sweep of a full arm circle.  
A portal appeared in front of him, and in a split second, Shibu had vanished from sight.

The other end of the portal open suddenly into the throne room itself, and Shibu made sure to drop out of the unique inter- dimensional opening onto the dense red carpet, rather than creating any noise by landing on the white stone floor.

But his arrival did not go unnoticed. The moment he was standing still in the back of the throne room, the elderly man sitting on the throne brightened considerably. King Louis bright blue eyes sparkled as he caught sight of Shibu.

"Ah, there you are my lad!" The monarch of Bonta said, with happiness in his voice.

Shibu loped forward, down the length of the red carpet, and by the time the red line was at the bottom of the short flight of stairs which led up to the throne, Shibu was down on one knee before the King.

"Forgive my being late, Sire." Shibu asked King Louis. "I was rather more tired than I expected after yesterday, your Majesty. I apologize for letting Bonta down."

"Did you hear that everyone?" King Louis asked, with shock and surprise in his voice, even while the smile never faded from his face. 

"The stellar blacksmith who did a month worth of work in a day is apologizing for letting Bonta down!" The King exclaimed happily to the assembled members of the royal court. "Shibu, you two have a positive gift for showing up just when Bonta needs the two of you most!"

Shibu raised his eyes, looking up at the King. "I thank your Majesty for his words of praise and kindness. If I have been of any service to my people, then all my efforts have been worthwhile."

"While you have enjoyed the rest you have earned in helping to restore our kingdom, I regret to tell the court that there have been troubling new developments over the course of the night, and early this morning." King Louis began, as he addressed the men and women most loyal to the kingdom, as they gathered closer together, and closer to the throne.

"Cici!" King Louis interjected. "I'll leave it to you as commander of the Cra detachment, now happily reinforced, to summarize the tactical situation."

Shibu smiled, as a quarter way around the tight circle which ringed the throne, Cici step forward, and knelt before the throne in exactly the same space where Shibu had been a moment before.

"I thank your most Royal Majesty." Cici began, her voice already sounding heavy and grave in tone. "Early this morning, one of the blockade ships of Mendoza's fleet slipped its cable, and managed to put to sea. That ship was pursued by small boats, using the outgoing tide to keep up with the larger ship." Cici began, building the explanation slowly so that everyone could understand it. 

"It pains me very much to inform your Majesty and the Court of Bonta, that the blockade ship was observed using a large plate glass mirror and a succession of lanterns to make signal to what we believe was a ship far out to sea." Cici explained, choosing her words carefully so that they could be most directly understood. 

"Following your Majesty's orders, a force of Cra archers disabled the signaling device, and boarded the ship, taking the crew and her captain into custody." Cici concluded gravely. "When interrogated separately from the captain and officers, several of the crew confessed that their purpose was to make signal to Commodore Mendoza. They tell us that his position is now only a day from our coast." Cici added ominously. "The crew of the blockade runner expressed loyalty to Bonta, and said that the ship's captain and officers held pistols at the backs of their crew."

Having said almost too much, Cici fell silent, and bowed down on one knee before the throne, signaling the end of her report.

"Shameful and shocking!" King Louis exclaimed loudly. "Let all our sailors know of this travesty. Let them know what the reward is for loyalty to this seagoing serpent." King Louis ordered sternly. "No one anywhere who professes loyalty to our kingdom and our city shall be treated as a slave." King Louis continued. "We have laid preparations to make a stand against these brigands, helped by crews of ships who have expressed loyalty to us, and to Bonta." The King told his court. "Order the remaining ships on Mendoza's blockade line to surrender and prepare to be boarded, else to give battle to ships loyal to us." King Louis ordered from the throne.

Off to the left of the circle, quite near the throne, Shibu was surprised to see Sir Reginald bow at the king's command. "Sire, allow me the honor of sending these malefactors a stern message. And if the answer be not to your liking, let Bonta's next message be sent via shot and powder." Bonta's most senior knight replied to the regal command. "May it please your most Royal Majesty, but I believe that as from this moment, we should consider ourselves in a technical state of war against these piratical thieves." Sir Reginald added sternly, adding to the gravity of Cici's report.

On the throne, Shibu could see King Louis's normally clear and bright blue eyes cloud with a mist of sadness.

"We have always believed that war is the greatest of tragedies. We have worked with our best and brightest subjects to try to stop this terrible event from coming to pass. But the safety and security of my people must come before all else. I endorse the words of our most senior knight and liege man, Sir Reginald of Bonta, Knight of the Realm." King Louis began. But he was silent for a moment before he added one more pronouncement. "It is with profound sadness, but with unshakable resolve to be victorious that we must announce to our court, and to our kingdom that the state and city of Bonta declares itself at war with the pirate known as Commodore Mendoza,and with any who profess loyalty to him."

Standing in his customary place in the circle around the throne, Shibu suddenly felt violently sick to his stomach. The feeling seized him so quickly that he almost fell over, and in the next moment there was a familiar arm over his shoulder, helping to hold him up. Shibu looked up a bit and smiled warmly, the sudden nauseating knot in the pit of his stomach relaxing a little, as Shareef's green eyes met those of his brother.

"Steady, Shibu." Shareef whispered to him gently as the entire throne room dissolved into a steady buzz that mixed conversation, exclamation and invocation. Almost at once, above the sound of muffled speech, there rose the sound of the firm impact of a silver staff hard upon the white stone floor near the throne.

"Lords and Ladies of Bonta, to order for the King!" The Royal Chamberlain called out sternly, quashing the low buzz of anxiety which had rippled through the court after the King's grave statement.


	31. Homecoming in Silver

Standing beside one another, Shibu could feel Shareef's profound sense of dread pass through both of them at the same time.  
The final word from King Louis had ended both the general and counsel audiences for the day. Even though the sun had barely set, the day already felt much longer and more oppressive than any day Shibu could remember.

Shibu and Shareef quickly realized that they were holding one another up as the throne room around them dissolved into a boiling mass of coordinated movement.

The only place where each of them wanted to look was into one other's eyes.

"Shibu, I'm so very sorry." Shareef whispered to him quietly. "My arrival here has helped bring this upon Bonta." Shareef lamented, his voice low and sullen.

"Don't you say that!" Shibu snapped suddenly. "Don't you even think such a thing!" Shibu replied sharply. "Your arrival won't mark the fall of Bonta, instead, it'll be seen as the city's salvation, my brother." Shibu told his brother in a stern but loving tone.

"I've been thinking that perhaps, if I turned myself over to Mister Gilpin and Commodore Mendoza, they might leave in peace." Shareef revealed to his brother.

Shareef watched as the fine bronze tone of Shibu's face changed, on account of the color which drained from his face.

"I can't tie you down, because more than anyone else in Bonta I need you beside me!" Shibu replied. "But I can see you need convincing from someone other than me. Come along!" Shibu ordered, clapping hold of his brothers forearm, and pulling Shareef along with him as the two brothers approached the throne once again.

"I beg your pardon your highness, but by your leave, I have a slight problem which only your Majesty may resolve."

King Louis had every right to be waspish and out of sorts. The kingdom he loved best in all the world was now at war. But rather than be angry, the two boys fell under a regal set of blue eyes nearly as gentle and as pure as Shibu's own.

"Hello boys!" King Louis replied easily. "I was hoping to see you, but not quite in this way." King Louis continued. "What can I do for the two of you, so that you can help me help Bonta?" The king asked, entirely without rancor or temper of any kind.

"Shareef has expressed the opinion that all of these events are somehow his own fault, your Highness. Please, oh please, tell him how wrong he is to think that way." Shibu pleaded with the man who was not only his monarch, but also his friend.

"Your brother is right, Shareef." Louis began with a brief but affirmative statement that left no doubt as to his own opinion. "You are entangled in these events because of the company you kept before you came to us. But you did not cause the arrival of the storm, nor of the plague which followed in its wake." King Louis of Bonta told Shareef in a firm but sympathetic tone. "You have tried in every way to help prevent what has happened, but I believe that this turn of events was inevitable from the moment that a fancy dressed seagoing viper set foot upon our beach. You are in no way to blame directly for any of this." King Louis continued at length, sparing no word to let Shareef understand the Royal Bontarian point of view.

"And if you'll forgive an old man, who unfortunately has seen more than one war, I have to be blunt about what I expect from both of you in this crisis." King Louis continued, somewhat more sober than before.

"Your Majesty may have no doubts at all about my resolve." Shibu answered up quickly. "I stand as ready as any Knight of Bonta to do battle against these criminals who would despoil our people, and our kingdom." Shibu replied resolutely.

Then, Louis held up a gentle but firm hand before the two of them.  
"If I had any doubt at all of your resolve, or your loyalty, you would not be here, Sirs Shibu and Shareef." Louis answered. "But only a fool would deny that you two are unique, perhaps not only to Bonta herself, but perhaps to all of the world." King Louis told the two of them quietly but with stern resolution in his voice. "For the moment, Bonta has plenty of loyal fighting arms, including both of you if it comes to that. But for now, from both of you, I need an even higher loyalty than the will to go to war for me, or for the kingdom itself."

King Louis' statement stopped both the disagreement between the two brothers, and quietly rekindled their mutual wish for the well-being of both the King before them, and his kingdom at the same time.

"Name it Majesty, and we shall do it." Shareef replied, before his brother could get out the same words from what seemed for the moment to be their single heart.

"I need the two of you to go with Master Chung, into the cavern beneath the castle." King Louis ordered simply. "I'm not trying to protect both of you, nor to hide you away from danger." King Louis added quickly, stopping any argument before it could begin. "But I also know that there are things down there which Shibu needs to show his brother. Things that have to do with why the two of you are so unique." King Louis said to them both. "The best thing you can do for now, is to finish Shareef's education, so that both of you are prepared to meet the worst in your own way based on who you are, and not just what you want to do out of loyalty to me or for the kingdom." King Louis concluded.

Both Shareef and Shibu stood in dumbfounded silence before the throne, and the elderly monarch who sat upon it.

After a moment, King Louis smiled gently at both of the boys, reminding him that the King was also their friend, and he hoped, their mentor as well.

"A good King knows how to use the abilities of all his subjects in times of trouble, my lads. Your loyalty warms my heart, but you can do more for Bonta now below the castle than inside it. We will all be defending the Bonta that we love. But in your case, Shibu, you'll be helping as you always have, by giving Bonta another gift as great and simple as yourself."

In complete silence, with the argument between them seeming to be smaller and less important every moment, Shareef and Shibu knelt together in front of their friend the King.

"As you command, your Majesty." Both of them said very quietly to King Louis. But to the elderly man sitting upon the throne, the pair of quiet voices sounded like the most piercing shout of loyalty he had ever heard.

"Long live Bonta, my sons." King Louis said to both of them as he beckoned them to rise. "Find Master Chung as only you can, and get yourselves below as quickly as possible. I suspect that the two of you have much to do, together."

"King Louis?" Shibu asked more quietly.

"Yes Shibu, my noble Knight?" The King replied.

"I-- that is-- we-love your Majesty, very much indeed." Shibu told Louis, because he was the only one with enough voice left to speak.

"Thank you, my brave sons." Louis said to both of them with tears in his misty blue eyes. "I send you two where I have because your love may be Bonta's best hope. Go now, we shall see one another again, both before the battle is joined, and most certainly well afterward." Louis told both Shibu and Shareef, before waving them away gently.

But as both of them walked backward out of the King's presence, as was the custom at court, both Shareef and Shibu noticed that it was the King who never broke eye contact with both of them before the closing door which led to the downward passage separated the King from their sight.

Once the brothers were alone in the short hallway which led to the great oak doors that sealed the descending passageway, Shibu turned slightly, hugging Shareef warm and gentle while he spoke to his brother.

"I would do positively anything King Louis asked me to do, no matter what." Shibu told Shareef. "And I swear I'm going to protect you in just the same way as he protects both of us, no matter what." Shibu whispered quietly into Shareef's ear.

"I love you too, my brother Shibu. And our promise is to protect each other in the very same way that we love one another. And that is my promise to you." Shareef replied quietly, as he relished the strength and warmth of Shibu's tender embrace.

“Come with me, Shareef." Shibu said quietly at last. "To help both of us keep our promises, there are things down below which you must see and understand." Shibu told Shareef. "Master Chang waits for both of us below, to continue our education. And believe me my brother when I say that we have not a single moment for recess from this school."

So saying, Shibu stepped back just a bit from Shareef, to give himself enough room to swing his arm in a wide circle in front of both of them.

The portal which was formed in front of them was a blue light of power and purity, which filled Shareef's green eyes with a magical wonder, and Shibu's handsome face with a smile as bright as his brother's green eyes. Shibu gave Shareef a sharp shove into and through the Eliotrope circle of light, and with a giggle, hopped in after him, as both Shareef and Shibu vanished from sight, headed deep down below the castle, where the catacombs lay.

Before Shareef could react, another space opened beneath his feet, and he was tumbling across the floor made of blue stones. He stopped himself by rolling flat out onto his back, and just letting the world stop rolling around him. As his eyes opened, he saw Shibu gazing down at him with a bemused expression.

"Sorry for the fast trip, but like I said upstairs in the castle, we don't have a lot of time we can waste." Shibu told him taking on a serious note in his voice as he continued.

"Welcome to our World, brother mine. Or at least a small surviving corner of it." Shibu went on with the explanation, as he helped Shareef to his feet, and then gave his brother a deep and relaxing hug.  
Shareef returned the embrace gratefully, distracted for just a moment from the unusual room around him by Shibu's unexpected but welcome display of both emotion and devotion.

Their temporary recess was interrupted by another familiar voice Shareef had often heard in the Castle above.

"Greetings to you both." Master Chang said casually without turning his attention from the huge illuminated book he was studying as he spoke. "I'm glad to see you both here. But like his Majesty the King, I very much wish it could be under much happier circumstances than this." Bonta's Elder Sage continued for a moment. He paused only to pass a leathery finger just above the illuminated pages of the massive book before him. Shareef watched with fascination as the ancient parchment pages whose words were inscribed with gold leaf turned as if caught by the most gentle breath of breeze imaginable.

"Shibu, since you are the senior Eliotrope, and this is in effect, your kingdom, I'll let you take charge." The elder Sage said, glancing at Shibu for a moment, and then returning his concentration to the book before him.

"I was afraid you were going to say something like that, Master." Shibu confessed quietly. "There's so much to explain, that even I am still a little bit overwhelmed by it all. So I'm not quite sure where to begin." Shibu continued, trying to pull his thoughts together for both himself and Shareef.

"Every story has a beginning, Shibu." Master Chang advised quietly. "Begin at the beginning, and you can seldom go wrong." The elder Sage advised.

To Shibu, it sounded like the best and simplest idea he had heard yet.

"Okay Master, I will begin, but at the beginning for Shareef and myself." Shibu responded.

He paused long enough to look for something that Shareef could sit down upon, and perhaps himself as well. For the one thing he had learned through all of this experience was that the story of his own people was one of the most remarkable things he had ever heard, or had ever imagined that he would ever hear.

After just a moment, Shareef spied a set of simple wooden stools. Not terribly comfortable as seating went, but functional and simple, just like the people who had built this remarkable place. So it was more than good enough for the two of them. Shareef smiled gently, as Shibu took him gently by the shoulders, and with a slight pressure of both hands downward, guided Shareef as he sat down. Once Shareef was seated, Shibu did the same thing. Then the red and silver Eliotrope drew a deep breath and began.

"Shareef? Do you remember the word I said to you in the hospital? Eliotrope." Shibu asked simply.

"Yes, Shibu." Shareef answered. "I also remember you saying that it was the name of our People."

"That's right, Shareef." Shibu responded. "The simple truth is that our people are not native to this World. We come from somewhere far beyond it." Shibu selected simple and direct words to outline one of the most complex and mysterious answers about the lineage which the two of them shared.

"Perhaps that explains why I spent so many nights with my mother, looking far out into the night sky." Shareef remembered fondly for a moment. "Mother always said I looked at the stars as if I was searching for something, but I could never say exactly what that something might be." Shareef continued.

"I was born under the sign of the Sea Dragon, according to the stories of this world." Shibu replied pensively. "But from the time I learned to recognize the Sea Dragon in the night sky, I always knew that there was something beyond it. Something I was missing." Shibu confessed quietly to Shareef. "When Master Chang showed me this place, and what I'm about to show you was what I was missing. Something I now share with my brother."

Shibu paused long enough to put his hands upon his knees, and push just a bit to help them stand. He then turned and extended a hand to Shareef, who took it eagerly, and let his brother lead the way by a step or two through a broad archway in the wall of blue stones that went all the way up to almost touch the vaulted ceiling, where Shareef noticed what seemed to be stars twinkling far above his head!

"Shibu, brother. The stars are here, inside with us!" Shareef exclaimed with excitement raising his voice. "It is miraculous! How in the world did our people accomplish such a wonder as this?" Shareef wanted to know eagerly.

"If even part of what I have learned about our people is true, the stars you see up there were the easiest thing our people did when they built this place." Shibu answered.

Shareef's first few tentative steps through the massive underground cavern were surprisingly short, as Shibu led Shareef not to some imposing monolith, nor down one of the serpentine tunnels that gave an indication of how deep and wide the reach of this cavern truly was.

Instead, Shibu led Shareef first of all toward the nearby wall, constructed out of the same unique blue stones which Shareef had already seen so closely as he rolled across the floor on his arrival.

"Brother, give me your hand." Shibu instructed simply.

Shareef complied without thinking, relying not only on reflex, but upon the complete trust he enjoyed in Shibu. For his part, Shibu took Shareef's hand gently by the wrist, and guided Shareef's open palm to touch the nearest of the blue stones. At first, their normal blue coloration betrayed no sort of polish, or engraving which Shareef could discern. But now, as his palm drew closer to the blue masonry, the stone he touched seemed to light gently from within, with a ball of dancing blue fire which gave light and energy, but radiated no heat which caused discomfort to his calloused hand.

The animated blue ball of energy seem to jump up and dance for a moment beneath Shareef's touch, before its light grew in gentle radiance, allowing the light itself to follow the lines of the brickwork that joined every blue brick, not only in the wall before them, but across the entirety of the cavern as far as Shareef could see. Shareef stood and watched with amazement, as the blue light seemed to flow both like water, and like light from the stars far above, touching the roof of the cavern itself. 

Once freed, the light itself seem to accelerate as it spread out, moving at something closer to its natural speed as it went from stone to interconnected stone, through not only the walls but to the floors beneath their feet, and finally vaulting like something alive upward toward the stones which formed the roof of the cavern, and leaping upward ever more toward the starscape Shareef had seen at the very limits of his own vision.  
No sooner could Shareef take it all in then the cavern all around the two of them was illuminated like the pages from Master Chang's great book.

"Don't be afraid, Shareef." Shibu said, in spite of being able to tell that Shareef was far more exhilarated than fearful at the spectacle of the cavern illumination. "The blue light you see, our people called "Wakfu." Shibu explained, taking care and time to pronounce the last word with a certain reverence which matched his understanding.

"Walk-Foo." Shareef repeated, making sure that he had the pronunciation he had heard from Shibu. "Is that right, brother?"  
Shareef wanted to know, as he seemed to commit the word to his mind, and to his heart, in the same way his eyes had committed the illumination of the cavern to his memory, never to be forgotten.

"Yes, Shareef, that's right. Wakfu is the energy shared by all living things." Shibu replied. "The most important thing to know about it just now is that we Eliotropes have a special gift. It is the ability to sense and control our own Wakfu, and to draw upon the Wakfu of the universe itself." Shibu told Shareef directly, condensing the incredibly complex nature of the Eliotropes to a few simple and direct words.

Shareef considered what his brother said for just a moment, lifting his palm from the now illuminated wall of light blue bricks before him. Shareef look for a moment at his own hand, as if he had never seen it before. Then he glanced back at his brother, with a combination of worry and wonder lighting up his green eyes and face.

"You mean that my energy, or my control of it just did all of what I just saw?" Shareef almost panted, his surprised voice much lower with a mixture of disbelief and surprise.

"Yes, Shareef." Shibu answered directly. "The answer runs much deeper than that, but for now, we have no time for deep explanations. Just so you understand that the power and the gift to manipulate Wakfu is yours, just as it is mine, my brother." Shibu said simply and directly.

"All of that-power-came out of--Me?" Shareef stammered, seemingly half in shock as he looked from his plain and unremarkable calloused palm, upward to where the wave of blue light seemed to have touched the very stars at the ceiling of the cavern.

"The short answer is yes, Shareef." Shibu answered. "The stones are not just carved blocks. They recognize and transmit Wakfu. The very walls and bricks themselves now recognize your touch, as well as mine and Master Chang's. It means that you will be able to come and go down here in complete safety and security at any time." Shibu revealed to his brother. "This cavern and everything in it really and truly belongs to our people and to us, Shareef." Shibu told his brother gently. "This small, very blue corner of the world is a corner of our real home."

"My real home is wherever our family is, Shibu." Shareef replied gently.

"Thank you handsome. You'll be the one to understand exactly how much that means to me." Shibu replied, as his high cheekbones showed a touch of strawberry blush, even through his bronze skin.

"But I do accept my identity as an Eliotrope." Shareef continued. "It explains so much that I remember from when I was young, and with my original family." He explained quietly.

"The day I found out, I was so happy I cried." Shibu remembered for Shareef to hear. "As much as Mom and Cici gave my life meaning, something that was missing up until then came back to me. If anything, discovering my identity as an Eliotrope has given me more reason to love them, and to care for all the people who've made my life so good, and so complete. That's why I feel so strongly about fighting for Bonta." Shibu spoke, letting his heart flow with his memories as he shared them with Shareef.

Shareef reached down gently and took Shibu's hand in his own once again. The rough, calloused sensation of Shareef's hands had become something else that Shibu enjoyed very much. But this time, Shareef had something else to share with his brother.

"I feel the same way." Shareef confessed. "If I had been shipwrecked off of Brakmar, or anywhere else I've been, except one place, I would've been left to drown, and simply washed away with the wreckage of my ship. But you came after me. You and Cici. Our Family are my greatest treasures, and I will love you until those stars that I looked upon as a child can be seen no more in the sky.  
"  
By now, Shibu's tears had clouded his brilliant blue eyes, making the light which beamed from them seem even more sweet and magical to Shareef.

"I wish we could spend days, or months in this place, completely open to one another." Shibu said quietly as he used his free hand in a vain attempt to wipe away his tears. Shareef saw Shibu's predicament, as the two of them were still holding hands tenderly. Shareef stepped in close to Shibu, and removed Shibu's tears from his bronze cheeks with a pair of gentle and loving kisses, flavored slightly salty in the moment of emotion from Shibu.

"But now, the city and the people we both love and care for are under attack, or very soon shall be." Shareef told his brother quietly. "There is so much more I need to know, including how to focus my Wakfu. And that, I want to learn from you, my brother the Wakfu Master.

Now another strawberry blush was added to Shibu's salted cheeks. He had always been too modest to expect that anyone would ever grant him the title of Master. But once more, his brother had given him another warm and heartfelt gift. Shibu swallowed with some difficulty, excepting both the title and the responsibility which now moved even larger for teaching Shareef about the unique gifts of the Eliotropes.

"You heard what Cici said the other day, Shibu. I think she meant it partly in jest, but in humor there is truth. I am beginning to understand both you and Wakfu. And I also begin to see what the two of us might do together, given the training, and given the chance. But now, as you have said, there is time only for the essentials." Shareef told his brother.

The two of them turned, walking into one of the side corridors of the cavern, which had been lined with the same blue stone as the vast main chamber.

"This passageway leads to another cavern room." Shibu told Shareef. "I have it set up as a sort of training room that I can safely use to focus and project Wakfu, without damaging anyone or anything except the targets that I have set up. I also use it to practice archery from time to time." Shibu continued. "If you wish to learn and use the bow as a Ranger, I can teach you the basics. While I can't train you as a Ranger would, because we have no time, knowing you as I do, you will pick it up as quickly as I did."

"I hope so, Shibu." Shareef replied, feeling a little short on words.

"When and if the time comes, I want to fight at your side, and if need be, make a stand with you." Shareef told his brother. "It may be wrong of me, for I worship peace, but if and when I must fight, I want to fight as well as my magnificent brother. Combining our courage, I think it very few things in this world might be our equal, my brother."

"I believe that is what the king meant when he said what he did about meeting what is to come in our own way. As only Eliotropes can." Shibu told Shareef. "His Majesty knows something of my abilities and skills. He is very keen of mind, and as you have seen, he also has a good heart." Shibu added. "King Louis has also seen enough battle to understand that the two of us can fight in ways that no number of Bontarians can match."

"I know these seagoing brigands." Shareef replied flatly. "I have heard them talk for days and hours about how pirates take cities, and with them, treasure. It is part of their lore."

"You know how they will come. You know what they shall do, and how they shall do it. That advantage is worth more than double the number of the entire Royal guard." Shibu replied. "If we can train some together, and practice together, perhaps we can make a plan to spare Bonta the fight which is coming." Shibu confessed quietly to his brother, even though they were far, far below the castle atop the hill.

"I have suggested once before meeting the pirate ships while they are still at sea. But the King would not allow it. He was right in saying that I did not know enough to make it work without endangering myself, which he would not allow for mother's sake. But with you to educate me, in as much as I train you, I think it is possible to stop the Pirates before they land, and perhaps, with luck, even before they open fire on Bonta from the sea." Shibu explained in slow and careful detail.

By the time he had finished speaking of his intentions, and a possible plan of attack, Shareef's green eyes could light the corridor down which the two of them walked, even without the mystical light of Wakfu.

"What you propose is risky, my brother Shibu. But I believe you are right. The only way Bonta can be spared any attack which might harm our people is to meet Mendoza and his sea serpents on the water, rather than waiting for them to draw within sight of Bonta." Shareef answered Shibu in the same careful detail which is brother had used.

"Then we make us a pact, my brother. We shall teach one another what we must know to strike these evil thieves before they can do our loved ones any harm. Though it cost us our lives in the attempt. Agreed?" Shibu asked his brother point blank.

"Agreed!" Shareef replied seriously. "Now let us worked in good earnest, for there is much we need to teach one another before we can take the war to Mendoza before he can bring it to Bonta."


	32. Lessons in Blue

"There are a lot more things that I could tell you about Wakfu." Shibu said to Shareef speaking slowly but building intensity has the two of them walked into another smaller narrower and higher room formed out of the unique blue stones which seemed to glow with the same energy that Shareef had seen light up the main cavern room.

"Eliotropes don't tell, Shareef, they show." Shibu explained in short clipped words. 

"Hold out both of your hands, palms up." Shibu told his brother. "And close your eyes." Shibu instructed.

Shareef did what he was told by reflex. 

Shibu held out his hands, palms down, holding his hands just above Shareef's upturned palms.

"You'll need my help for the first time, brother." Shibu said quickly, before the two pressed their palms together.

As their hands met,an intense crackling wave of natural blue light formed between the pair,leaping out of both of them as if their combined Wakfu was a living thing born between them.

But it was Shibu and not Shareef who was in for a surprise as their energies met, combined and equalized. Shibu saw the light blue floe of life energy take on a definite form! It was a huge, feline shape, sleek and muscular, with lemon yellow eyes that fell on Shibu and melted thru his very soul like the most powerful beam of Wakfu that Shibu could generate! The energetic feline seemed to snarl at Shibu for a moment, threatening to pounce upon him. But then the form turned in a fine sinuous motion, and as quickly as it had come forth, the great powerful cat's form melted back into the aura of Wakfu around Shareef!

“Wow!” Shibu exclaimed, not being able to hold back his reaction.

“What's the matter, Shibu?” Shareef asked quickly “What did you see?”

“Even I'm not sure.” Shibu said more quietly than before. “We'll be asking Master Chang about this one.” Shibu remarked.

Shareef gasped lightly as he felt the blue aura shorten his breath, and quicken his heartbeat! There was no pain, for there was no consuming heat in this blue fire. Instead, there was an intensity of energy Shareef had never dreamed of before!

"Think about me, same way I think about you, all the time." Shibu said quickly. "Now brother, open your eyes and see!"

Shareef's reflexes answered again, and when his eyes snapped open, the entire world before his eyes seemed to have turned the same shade of blue has the soft light emanating from the stones around them which made up the room itself!

His sight was filled with the familiar blue outline of which he already knew every detail. But the aura around Shibu was brighter than a full moon rising on a flat sea! Shareef blinked his eyes, and the blue aura subsided slightly.

"What you see is our shared Wakfu." Shibu explained. "By sharing our energy, I raised yours by a bit, and made us both equal for a while."

"I feel like I could fly, Shibu!" Shareef responded, as he glanced down for a moment at his own familiar palms which now emitted a soft blue light he had seen once before.

Shibu smiled in response. "If we do well, that will come later. For now pick one of the triangular targets hanging on the other side of the room above my head." Shibu continued.

Shareef could distinguish more than a dozen large wooden pieces, each one a diamond shape that hung from thin cords coming down from the vaulted ceiling above. His eyes settled on the closest one. "Ready!" He reported.

"Raise your arm, slightly bent at the elbow, and then thrust your open palm toward the target you picked." Shibu instructed.

Shareef's motion was slower and deliberate the first time, but when he thrust his palm toward the target, he felt himself put energy into the motion, together with a dash of emotional excitement!

Shareef watched in amazement, as a small blue circle formed in front of his hand, and from the center of the blue circle a blue white beam of pure light snapped out, almost like a lightning bolt leaping between thunderclouds. Before Shareef could take it all in, both Eliotropes sidestepped, and small fragments of wood rained down on the blue stone floor!

Shareef saw Shibu smile before his brother's voice barked "Again!"  
Shareef repeated the action, and chips of another wooden triangle fluttered to the floor.

"Again, but this time snap the motion of your arm and hand, and want more than anything to hit that target." Shibu told him shortly.

Shareef obeyed instantly, adding a vocalization with a stronger, quicker and more authoritative movement.

"Ki-Ya!" Shareef said, adding the energy of his voice to the energy he felt flowing through him as he repeated the quick blur of motion. This time, no fragments rained down. The entire triangular target was struck by the beam of blue light, and simply disappeared without a trace!

"Great!" Shibu coached, standing beside his brother. "You're a quick learner, just like me, and once you learn something you get good at it quick." Shibu observed.

Shareef smiled gently at his brother's praise, the blue glow over casting his green eyes added to the energy around Shareef, as he took three more of the targets in rapid succession, the last pair so quickly that Shibu had trouble seeing the motion of Shareef's arm, his eyes tracing only the slight blue afterglow of the ray which completely consumed the hanging targets one after the other!

"Show off!" Shibu said with a touch of merriment under his breath that brought an even wider and whiter smile from Shareef.

"I think you get the idea." Shibu said without any excessive praise this time.

"Could you do the same thing to a pirate on a beach coming at you with a cutlass?" Shibu asked more critically this time.

"Does this kill, Shibu?" Shareef asked, being as direct as their time was short.

"No, Shareef." Shibu reassured. "To do that, you'd need to spend almost all of your Wakfu. But remember this. There's no law against making Mendoza or any of his thieves wish that they were dead before you're finished with them." Shibu summarized frankly. "We can make most of his crew hurt so much that they will beg to give up long before we have to take any lives, or so I hope." Shibu continued.

"I hope the same." Shareef answered. "Fighting is what got me in trouble with Mister Gilpin. But he deserved what he got for what he wanted to do to me. I'm afraid he still holds the same grudge he held while we were at sea before the storm." Shareef went on.

Shibu nodded an easy and sympathetic understanding. "Before this is over, Shareef I promise you that people like Mister Gilpin will never bother you again, unless they enjoy more pain than most of them can imagine." Shibu responded directly. "That's Eliotrope rule number two after showing, not telling." Shibu told Shareef. " We are not slaves or servants." 

"And we're strong enough not to be afraid." Shareef added.

"That's my Brother!" Shibu replied proudly. "Ready for lesson three, Shareef?" Shibu asked brightly.

"Please, Shibu!" Was Shareef's excited response.

"Good!" Shibu said. “Which brings us to what makes us Eliotropes. Portals." Shibu said with a trace of pride in his voice.

"Those blue openings in space?" Shareef asked proving he had been watching, even if he did not yet understand.

"Yep-Yep!" Shibu answered quickly. "I'm going to show you the coolest way to get anywhere that there ever has been, Shareef." Shibu told his brother, sounding even more sure and certain than usual. "Mendoza and his eels are going to wish they were back in that storm before we're done with him." Shibu said. "And now, I'll show you how, and why, Brother."

"Lead on, Shibu. I walk in your footsteps." Shareef responded eagerly.

"We walk beside each other, My Brother, now and forever." Shibu answered.

As he spoke, Shibu moved only two fingers in a slight circular motion, rather than swinging his hand and arm in a wide circle, as before.  
Shareef was amazed by Shibu's power and control. "Will you teach me that, as well, please, Shibu?" Shareef asked hopefully.

Shibu smiled, clapping Shareef around the shoulders. "That's lesson number three, Shareef. Follow me." Shibu replied directly. 

Without another word, Shibu dove into the center of the portal, sweeping Shareef along right beside him before the blue circle shrank a bit, and then winked silently out of existence! 

Master Chang could feel a pair of familiar aura slide into his work room and library. One portal appeared on the right-hand side of the room, and Shibu dropped into view as skillfully as a lark lighting on the thinnest branch of a tree.

Scarcely one second later, another portal appeared. This one on the left side of the room. Both apertures were made of the same blue light. But while Shibu's entrance had been silent and graceful through a portal which seem to have been there since the beginning of time, the other portal hissed, crackled, and spat almost like a frightened Bow Meow! Once the portal was open, Shareef was unceremoniously dumped onto the floor of the thickly carpeted scholars retreat. Shareef rolled across the floor as if an Ecaflip gambler had mistaken him for a pair of dice!

Thanks to the resistance of several layers of thick tapestry laid upon the floor, Shareef was able to stop himself, and he bolted to his feet with a strong upward rush of blue energy that quickly faded.  
As Shareef steadied himself, his eyes and his other senses let him know where he was, and the olive skinned Eliotrope quickly sank back into a position on one knee before Bonta's greatest Sage.

"Forgive the intrusion, oh venerable one." Shareef intoned with apologetic formality. "I have yet to Master landings as easily as Shibu has mastered both entry and landing. My apologies if we disturbed you, Master."

"You disturb me not in the slightest, Shareef and Shibu." Master Chang said amiably, turning to the pair of figures now standing side-by-side at a painfully rigid posture of attention before their friend and teacher.  
There formality and veneration of his station always made Bonta's senior Sage smile. It was an expression that matched his silvery eyes, and brought a gentle light to the sages deeply tanned and leathery countenance.

"Relax please, both of you." Master Chang said good-naturedly. "You are not under review by his Majesty the King, at least not this time." The elder Sage informed them both. His smile grew gentler and brighter as both Shibu and Shareef relaxed admirably in front of their friend and teacher.

"I see that our Shareef has taken his first step into the larger world of the space between spaces." Master Chang remarked with just enough mystery in his statement to be both endlessly frustrating and absolutely mysterious.

"Yes Master!" Shibu interjected brightly. "And as I have heard you say many times about me, I'm pleased to say that Shareef here is the same sort of "wicked quick" learner as you saw in me the first time we met." Shibu told his mentor, with an obvious trace of joy and pride in his voice, as he clapped Shareef around the shoulders once again, helping his brother to Stand steady before Master Chang.

"Everything brother Shibu has shown me is ten times more amazing than his last lesson, Master Chang. I think that brother Shibu may have missed his calling, for along with a gallant knight, he would make an absolutely marvelous teacher." Shareef told Master Chang as the Sage turn gently away from his book stand, and cast great pools of Silver light onto both of the brothers as the old Sage's eyes twinkled merrily.

"Praise from students is a teacher's highest reward, Shareef." The elderly Sage remarked pleasantly. "But I also know your brother as both a student, and a teacher. He has come to ask me a question which only you can answer, Shareef." Master Chang continued after a moment.

Shibu and Shareef exchanged surprised sidelong glances! "Yes Master!" Shibu said, so nearly breathless with shock that his voice came out as a soft, almost kissing whisper as he spoke. Shibu took a moment to cough gently, and clear his throat before continuing.

"Master?" Shibu began, just a touch more nervous now than he had been a few seconds before. "While Shareef was enjoying his first test of wakfu, our energy flowed together as one, and I saw some--one, or was it some thing? It seemed to be linked to Shareef's Wakfu." Shibu explained, having uncharacteristic difficulty selecting words from his keen mind which reflected what he had seen. 

As soon as he was finished speaking, the Bontarian Sage could sense Shibu's frustration which was nearly matched by his insatiable curiosity about whom or what he had seen so close to Shareef.


	33. Legends of the Sands

Master Chang's sympathetic silver eyes slowly shifted, settling on Shareef for just a moment.

"Now is the time for the student to become the teacher." The Bontarian Sage said to Shibu and his brother.

“Shareef, now it's your turn to teach your brother about your homeland."

Shibu's vivid blue eyes shifted to his brother, betraying his look of hopeful excitement.

For his part, Shareef nodded slightly, and with a slight smile he sat down cross legged on the floor in the spot where he had been standing a moment before.

Shibu instantly copied the gesture, and to the surprise of both brothers, they were joined nearly as quickly by Master Chang!

"I was born on the continent of eternal sand." Shareef disclosed slowly after drawing a deep breath. "It is a land quite unlike any you can imagine. Some parts of it are as barren and seemingly lifeless as Bonta herself is brimming with life." Shareef began.

"I begin where I began, for it really is the same place." Shareef mused, calling back once again his very first memories.

"The father I remember was a caravan trader, but not in average goods." Shareef explained. "His trade was in maps, charts, and rare books." Shibu's brother began. "My father also had a rare gift. when he looked upon something deeply, he could remember every detail of it, without change or failure."

Master Chang nodded slowly. "Such a gift is rare indeed and not unheard of." The Sage confirmed for the brothers. "But it is also a most dangerous gift in some ways." The Sage of Bonta added.

Shareef nodded, slowly, the expression on his face changing to a weary sadness.

"So it was for my father, Master." Shareef replied. "One day, my mother told me that father had seen something he ought not to have seen." We fled with the very next caravan. Such was the end of my peaceful childhood." Shareef reflected quietly, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

"My family roamed until we found ourselves in a small but busy trading town with a dozen names you would hear from a dozen different people." Shareef related. "But here, my father was an Elder, and thus esteemed, no one could assail us. My mother became a mother and a big sister to every child in the village." Shareef told Shibu and Master Chang. "We finally knew peace and happiness after a time of trouble." Shareef remembered. "This was the place of my first true memories." Shareef picked up again, as Shibu and his Master listened closer.

"One day, a sandstorm larger than any could remember fell upon our town. It howled like a thousand mad wild beasts." Now, even years later, Shareef shuttered with the memory. "None caught in its fury were spared, and I remember my father leading survivors to find those buried, drowned, beneath a fall of sand which would fill one half of Bonta's great castle."

Master Chang brought a thoughtful thumb up and under the tip of his chin. After a moment, he nodded thoughtfully.

"When I was a young apprentice, word reached here of a storm which was said to nigh killed all the inhabitants of the desert Continent." The Elder Sage reflected. "Some of those who lived sailed away, here to Bonta, never again to be reminded of what befell them."

"It is so, Great Sage." Shareef answered. "Many people, and much wealth was taken from our lands by those who fled. But theirs is another story, not of my own life. This life is the one and only which matters to me now. This life, and my new family.” Shareef dedicated in a serious, quiet voice.

"I have read that your cities move along with the sands." Shibu interjected. "Is this true, Shareef?" Shibu asked, already sounding fascinated with Shareef's explanation.

"It is true, my brother." Shareef replied positively. "The tribes who live on the seas of sand move like the sand, and flow almost like waves of water, except upon the winds rather than the seas." Shareef continued brightly. "But those tribes who live upon the sands do not live there alone." Shareef added. "Here in Bonta, and in the great cities, you have Kings. The oasis where I was born has rulers of another type altogether." Shareef related, a somewhat wistful tone coming to his voice. "Those who dare to cross over the seas of sand call them "Sand Cats." Shareef recalled, his expression becoming a full smile as he spoke two very familiar words.

"Sand Cats are real?" Interjected a surprised voice. "Most of what I've read calls them legends." Shibu remarked.

"They are as real as we are, Shibu." Shareef affirmed. "I have been as close to them as I am to both of you now."

Shareef's statement had the tone of a truth so basic and profound that there was no room at all left for doubt. It was like a simple statement that sunlight was bright, and the midnight hour was dark.  
Shibu's curiosity sparked in his clear eyes, driving any flicker of doubt from a mind as bright as his eyes.

"Please, Shareef, tell me everything. I want to learn everything beyond the books and legends." Shibu begged.

"Then the truth of The Sand Cats is as much yours, as it is mine, My Handsome Brother." Shareef answered, smiling almost coyly at Shibu.

Shareef's smile became an odd grin, and hunched closer to Shibu, drawing the circle of the three of them closer and more intimate as he moved again. Gently the more olive skinned silver Eliotrope put a hand on Shibu's shoulder. As he did, Shareef turned down his hood, letting it fall all the way down to the top of his shoulders.

“Shibu, has anyone ever told you about the Sand Cats?" Shareef asked admiringly as he let his green eyes overflow with admiration of his brother.

"All I've read about them I found in books and old diaries from explorers." It had become Shibu's stock answer to almost every question at some point. But now his quick mind made the connection that Shareef had implied. "But I bet you know more about them than I do, seems to me they live in your part of the world. Tell me about them please, I want to go beyond the books. I bet you've actually seen them, haven't you, Shareef?"

"I've been as close to a feral sand cat as I am to you right now. Shibu." Shareef revealed, with an almost teasing tone in his voice. "You're more sleek and beautiful than any other wild animal..” Shareef began, pausing to blush as he caught the mistake of his first word, but then, he continued without pause.

“Fully grown,they are as tall as two people, with bright eyes the color of pure hot sunlight. They are wider than any house door in Bonta, with beautifully thick rounded shoulders and broad deep chests made of thick shields of muscle. But their true power is that they are smarter than most people. Combined with their ability to feel as well as think, nothing in all my homeland can match them. They are the rulers of the sands. Generations ago, it was written that my people actually looked to them for protection and inspiration on long voyages." Shareef explained, using a voice and a manner that seemed to weave an image of the indomitable cats out of the air as he spoke about them.

"Cool!" Shibu responded, completely enraptured by Shareef's descriptions, his pure blue eyes gleaming like polished sapphire's at the word picture Shareef painted for him. "I can't imagine what it would be like to be so close to something so grand and powerful." Shibu remarked. "Did you ever have a chance to actually touch one of them?" Shibu asked, every word of his question dripping with anticipation and excitement.

Shareef nodded ever so slightly, his own gem like green eyes sparkling with a light that bridged the distance into another time, and a happy memory.

"I could say that I had one for a pet, but the use of that word does not tell of the relationship between us." Shareef responded with a happy but wistful tone in his voice. "I found him while we were digging out a well after that violent sandstorm." Shareef began slowly, teasing out the memory this time not just for his audience of two, but because this time the memory also went straight to his own heart.

"His mother was on top of him, trying to shield him from the sand in the wind. But she was dead, so her son could live." Shareef continued, his voice becoming slightly thicker as he spoke. "I had no right to take him from his world, but I could not let the mother's sacrifice be in vain. So I took him up, and carried him home on my back, in the same way the mother had carried him to the edge of the well."

Shareef's voice wavered a bit, and he found the strength to go on as Shibu dropped a gentle palm onto Shareef's shoulder.

"You could say he adopted me as much as I adopted him." Shareef continued, his voice becoming more full and steady. "Because he was young, he knew no fear of any other animal, or of people." Shareef told Shibu. "Because I was both gentle and kind to him, we came to understand each other. And after a year had gone by, he had grown into his birthright, capable of fearsome power and tender acts of gentleness and insight that no human could match." Shibu continued, to listen, his elbows on his crossed knees, and his chin resting upon cupped in his hands as he hung on every word spoken to him, absorbing what he was told as if it was history not recorded in any of his books.

"He grew so fond of me that he would never leave my side, no matter what it was I did, or where I had to do it. Day and night, he was always within range of my touch, as well as my sight and hearing." Shareef explained. "Elders and young men in other villages would chase them away, but the elders in my village saw the two of us together, and they understood. To them, the two of us were made as brothers, never to be separated against our will.”

"Fantastic!" Shibu interjected. "It shows what being good and kind of heart can do for everyone." Shibu observed quietly. 'it isn't just some tale done to scare children.” Shibu remarked. “It is living history, for I can see that much in your eyes, and hear it in the tone of your voice. I know it is true because I can feel how you lived it.” Shibu said at last. “History beats legends every time.”

“But the proof of this true history is known only to those who have lived it, like my own Family." Shareef responded. "Since you are my own Family now, I shall take up an Eliotrope Tradition, and show you, that you may know what came to pass."

"Go on, Shareef!" Shibu encouraged. "This is better than any of the books of legends I read while I was growing up! Please show me the truth, and not the legends." Shibu asked. 

Shareef nodded slowly. "For you, Brother Shibu, My Valiant Knight, I will share with you everything I have lived, and all that I know, even the most sacred truth I hold." Shareef answered more quietly than before. "But to know the truth is to change the way even your most loving and pure eyes will see me." Shareef warned. "Are you prepared even for this, in your deepest heart, my brother?" Shareef asked at last in his most quiet and serious voice.

"I love you, Shareef, and I love everything that you are or could be, and that is for ever and for always, no matter what, I promise you absolutely." Shibu answered, speaking slowly and directly from his mighty heart. "My love is yours without condition, forever." Shibu promised solemnly.

“That is all I have ever wanted, my Handsome Shibu, and it is all the strength we require.” Shareef replied quietly. “Let the showing rather than the telling begin.”

Shareef paused, and then gathered himself up to stand where he had been a moment before. He steadied himself, during a deep breath before he moved again.

But this time, the sweep of his arm and hand was steady and strong. The blue opening in space generated by his motion was not so much a portal as it was a passageway, made of memories, life energy, and time.

Both Shibu and Master Chang could see the flow of energy between Shareef and the passageway, which seem to enlarge, spreading itself across the vision shared by the three of them.

Shareef spoke not a word, nor made any sort of sound as he brought the palm of his right hand up slowly beside the palm of his left hand. The flow of energy increased many fold, reaching a level that surprised even the elder Sage of Bonta.

The blue mantel of energy seemed to change, taking on shape and form as it swirled and eddied before the trio in midair.

All at once, the flow and its form had shape, cohesion, and the frightening form of power, as out of the cascading flow slid the huge and sinuous form of a great and powerful feline with lemon yellow eyes whose being seem to be sculpted from the energy and space itself!

Shibu found himself trying to move, but for the first time in his life he found himself unable to do so, as his body was made instantly unwilling to do so. Those lemon yellow eyes settled on him with the weight and the heat of a double sun, and in a moment their energy had flowed so completely through Shibu's mind and body that he could feel nothing more, and had no control over anything anymore, except his own blue vision.

The mighty cat taught Shibu a lesson in power and its true meaning with a single glance. The fluid feline threatened to overflow the workroom with an unspeakable but palpable strength, the same way and overfilled glass of water might spill when picked up by an unsteady hand.

The beast who commanded the room, the space, and their very lives was half as tall again at the shoulder as Master Chang, who up until that moment had been the most formidable personage that Shibu had ever imagined. When the great cat moved within its own universe of energy, it was with a deadly and silent grace that Shibu found both captivating and dreadful. For a moment, the lemon yellow suns and their power held Shibu as helpless as prey beneath the indescribable power and sinuous beauty of a Sand Cat come to life before him!  
Shareef moved not at all, even to draw another breath before he spoke a word Shibu had never heard in the same language Shareef had murmured while lying next to him in the hospital.

The sand cats vision shifted ever so slightly away from Shibu, and toward Shareef, who stood before the mighty feline with no more of a shield than his upraised palms.

"taw'um alruwh,'akhi." Shareef spoke quietly to the stately presence.

The great lemon yellow eyes under which Shibu found himself pinned looked into and through Shibu as casually as human eyes might examine a bit of faint writing upon an ancient fragment of parchment. The formidable feline bared a yard long quartet of upper and lower fangs which gleamed with a ferocious energy Shibu had only seen once before, while working steel at his forge! The room around the sand cat seemed to quake as if made of thin resonant glass rather than solid stone as the sand cat vocalized what sounded to be a half snarl melded with the unique vibration which for a moment threatened to take down and reduce the entire space of the catacombs themselves!

After a few moments, as the energetic ripple of noise and energy seemed to re-balance the air and space around the mighty cat, Shareef managed to speak gently to Shibu, never moving so much as his eyes, or his hands before the Sand Cat.

"Speak your name, my brother Shibu." Shareef instructed simply. "In this way, he shall know you as he knows me."

Shibu could not move, and somehow, he knew by instinct alone better than to try. It required all of his own formidable will to speak to the breathtakingly powerful being that held him completely helpless, under the power of his eyes alone.

"Shibu,'akhi." Whispered the red and silver Eliotrope as if the response had been squeezed from him by the weight of one of the massive blue paws pushing hard on his torso, heart and lungs.

It was all Shibu could manage for all of his own formidable Draconic strength before the air seemed to leave the space before him, and what seemed to be the combination of a tsunami and a lightning bolt made of blue more pure by far than his own eyes surrounded Shibu, taking him up into the air just off of his own feet, as the waves spread to engulf Shareef at his side!

The blue waterspout that was the terrible and magnificent definition of the sand cat seemed to swirl around about them for a moment, but this time, in a more subtle and fluid motion that carried all of the grace and power of the feline form. It drew Shareef and Shibu closer together in midair, and before the vision of the sand cat dissipated into a single ring of pure blue light, the two of them were drawn together, and set back lightly onto the floor upstanding close enough for the pair to embrace as the blue ring of light was absorbed into both of them at the same time.

In a moment, all was normal once more within the confines of master Chang's workroom, as if nothing out of space, energy, or time itself had ever disturbed it in the slightest.

Master Chang's silver eyes still flickered with wonder as they settled once again upon Shareef and Shibu.

"Fascinating." Master Chang observed. "The Sand Cats are certainly everything I remember them to be." The Sage of Bonta related to his pair of charges.

"It seems they have adopted you, for adopting one of their own, Shibu." Master Chang told Shibu with quiet reverence as he spoke.

Shibu did not move. He did not speak. He found himself barely able to think, but what he could feel was as pure and as strong as his love for Shareef.

"I not only have a brother and a soulmate." Shibu whispered to Shareef. I have life to share with a glorious Sand Cat, whom I love now and forevermore with all of my heart and soul, Ahki."

Shibu held Shareef even closer and more tenderly as he spoke the last word. One that the power of the Sand Cats had left with him from Shareef's own native language.

"Now we are truly taw'um alruwh, Shibu." Shareef told him gently but quietly. "Not just the two of us, but something beyond ourselves. Now, we are three rather than two. And all I have, and all I know, is yours as it is ours, without conditions or limits." Shareef told him as he folded Shibu into his own embrace, and held him close, warm and steady.


	34. The Black Fleet

The warm moment between the brothers was interrupted by another sort of vibration. The sensation and the sound together could be felt like a heartbeat throughout Bonta, and could not be ignored, even in the depths of the catacombs.

The clear, clean sound that melted through the blue stones as easily as it melted through their hearts was the sound of the city's alarm bells.

Shibu and Shareef separated just enough to stand close together with Master Chang as the sound and vibration built, sending a wave of warning through, across, and into the white city.  
Instinctively, both master Chung and Shareef found themselves looking suddenly and urgently at Shibu.

The red and silver Eliotrope never held back, and now was no exception. "We need to get to the tower, right away." Shibu told his brother and his mentor urgently.

Before either of them could speak, Shibu's fingers were already moving, casting a single large portal in front of the trio. No urging was needed, nor any words necessary as the master Sage of Bonta, Bonta's blue knight, and Bonta's newest squire stepped through and into the passage of blue light.

Their next step together onto solid ground was onto the white stone balcony that Felice loved so much. It was a perfect observation point, as high up on the tower as it could be without being on top. The altitude and the angle spread out a panoramic view of the city harbor, the seawall, and the ocean which spread out before them seemingly without end.

But the usually flawless blue horizon where sky and water met was cluttered with a small dark line of heavy dots, made visible only by their size, and difference in the color of dark wood against sunlit seawater. But this time, even Master Chung's aged eyes needed no aid in seeing them. At his side, Shareef was already using his sight and insight as a mariner to count and assess what was obviously a long line of large ships, sailing over the horizon, and toward the white city!

"I make seven ships, all heavy, and running low in the water." Shareef told Shibu and Sage in short, clipped words. Reflex alone made Shareef glance upward from the dark line of ships on the distant water, to gauge the sky and the wind for just a moment. But he was double checking something he already knew and could feel as well as the hair on his own head. He was certain a moment later when he spoke again. "The wind is with Bonta for the moment, brother Shibu. And against Mendoza and his bandits." Shareef told them both. "It means that it'll take them another day, to a day and a half for them to get here." Bonta has twenty-four hours at most to get ready."

Shibu nodded tightly at his brother's concise assessment of the naval situation. "Come on, Shareef." Shibu said shortly as his fingers moved again, opening a common portal in front of the brothers. "You got to talk to King Louis, right now."

"There's something else we need to do as well Shibu." Shareef replied quickly. "I think we should warn Cici as well." Shareef remarked.

Shibu nodded. "Good idea!" Shibu interjected. "Let's get going. Bonta's time is precious, and we have to use every second of it."  
Shareef paused, looking back to nod an acknowledgment to Master Chang who stood at the edge of the balcony, seeming to soak up the wind itself with his tall, spare, leathery form. Bonta's elder Sage looked back at the white-haired Eliotrope and smiled, before Shareef and his brother stepped together through the portal.

Instantly, another opening appeared before the two of them, and both brothers stepped quietly but quickly into the vast expansive space of Bonta's crystal throne room. The peel of the alarm bells set into the highest spire of the castle had only just begun to resonate within the naturally bright chamber with the faceted walls.

Both Shibu and Shareef's faces reflected a welcome moment of relief as the brothers caught sight of King Louis seated serenely on the throne of Bonta.

Sir Shibu and his squire were already on the long, red, velveteen runner which led directly to the throne. Both of them bowed together and it once, sliding to one knee and remaining there for a moment in reverence before standing up together to make a short fast walk to the foot of the throne itself.

"King Louis, I bring news." Shareef said, picking words that were short, sharp, and urgent in their tone.

"We are very glad to see both of you, and even more so to have news that we trust in this emergency. Speak." The king replied briefly.

"Majesty, I have seen a line of seven heavy laden warships on the horizon. They make full sail for Bonta. The wind of good fortune lays against them. Even still, they will be here by this time tomorrow." Shareef told the King plainly, without bothering to dresses words in courtly speech.

"Very well, squire Shareef." The king replied, keeping his own words brief. "We consider the kingdom of Bonta now to be under attack, and thus, once more, fully at war." The King spoke up more loudly from the throne, with the tone of royal proclamation.

"Sir Shibu?" King Louis asked sharply.

Instantly, Shibu came to attention with a snap and a salute. "At your command, my King." Shibu replied smartly.

"We appoint you liaison to the Cra detachment. Go, and make this news, and our orders to the city of Bonta known to them, at once." King Louis ordered, shortly and simply.

But after a moment, King Louis spoke once more to Shibu and his brother, more gently and informally this time. "Once the Cra are on alert, I wish you to return here, and contact Lady Felice and the Enripsa corps. Alert them as well, and see to it that your mother is safe. Understood, my boys?" The King asked both Shibu and Shareef.

"At your command, my King." Shareef responded gently but firmly. "Let's go, brother Shibu." Shareef said quietly. Both of them walked away from the Throne, out of sight of the King.

Shibu's portal finger was already in motion, and the two Eliotropes stepped through the portal, and blinked out of sight.  
But before the portal could open on the other end of the low stone building which was the headquarters for the archer detachment, Shareef put a hand on Shibu shoulder. Momentarily it stopped Shibu from reflexively opening the other end of the portal.

Shareef had learned that for just a moment, the two brothers were alone, out of time, and in a different space than the mighty white city which flowed around them. Shareef elected to use this moment to speak to his brother alone.

"Shibu?" Shareef said gently. "Hold on. We should talk before we see Cici and Mother."

Shareef's expression alone was enough to stop Shibu, where the two brothers stood in a spot of white space, between the time and space that Bonta knew.

"I think I know what you're thinking." Shibu told Shareef.”

"If that's so, brother, you know that it might be the only chance Bonta has. We can fight together the way no Cra or Bontarians can. No one else knows these approaching ships in the same way that I do.

Together, we might be able to do something for Bonta that no one else can do." Shareef summarized.

Shibu slowly put a thumb beneath the tip of his chin, after the fashion of master Chang as he considered the situation.

"I think we need more information about them." Shibu replied thoughtfully. "You have the right idea. But just attacking them out of the blue, literally, still gives them an advantage. I say we take the advantage instead." Shibu suggested.

Shareef's clear green eyes were already as bright as two stars in the deep black sky. "I'm with you brother, no matter what." Shareef replied with both strength and warmth in his voice.

Shibu nodded, taking his brother gently around the shoulder under one of his thick arms. "With a Sand Cat on our side, Bonta can't lose. Come on, Shareef. Let's find Cici, so she can do what she does best, while we're busy doing what we do best."

Shibu's index finger moved in a tight circle, and the two brothers were instantly standing in the middle of the Cra barracks.

"Hello boys!" A deep but jovial voice instantly greeted them.  
The resonant bellows of a voice belonged to the second in command of the Cra detachment.

Seeing him still stole more than a bit of Shareef's breath away. The tall lean Archer was as muscular throughout his long lean body as the intimidating mass of his bow arm. The Cra officer looked for all the world as if he could pass his days uprooting and carrying live trees, rather than protecting them with his bare hands and bow.

"Hello Captain Talon!” We need to see Cici, and nothing in Bonta is more urgent." Shibu spoke up, helping to break the spell.

The archer officer nodded shortly. "Let's go!" He said simply, and without so much as another breath he reached down, using a single sweep of his bow arm to lift both Shibu and Shareef onto his massive rounded shoulders! Before they could think, both Eliotropes found themselves moving through the entire barracks building as if the brothers were riding the most massive stag in all the world!

In what seemed only a few striding leaps of the Ranger Run, the trio found themselves standing not upon stone floors, but upon soft green ground carpeted with short but well manicured grass, and the air around them was filled with the unmistakable sound left to the ears as flights of arrows cut a clean, sharp path through the afternoon air before they cut deeply into their targets.

"Hold Flight!" A strong and familiar voice commanded.

Each of the one hundred and fifty bows on the firing line instantly lowered, and the line relaxed along with their bow strings.

Cici tensed, crouching slightly at her position in the middle of the long line of archers. As her second-in-command gently gave his passengers a lift down to the grass, before their feet could touch it, Cici sailed over the heads of the entire astonished detachment, and in only a heartbeat, Cici was down on one knee, in front of her brothers.

"What's the matter?" Cici asked both of them, keeping her words clipped and urgent.

"Seven heavy warships, low in the water, headed for Bonta. But the wind is against them. They'll be here this time tomorrow." Shareef replied, keeping his words equally short and as sharp as one of Cici's combat arrowheads.

"Detachment alert!" Cici said in a commanding voice which suddenly seemed three times her size.

The line of a hundred and fifty archers behind her snapped to a flawless attention, as if each one of them was a living part of a terrible machine.

Then, Cici shifted her eyes to her second-in-command. "Draw battle rations for all hands, and re-stack the quivers for battle, Captain. Order all of our troops fed in relays." Cici ordered, her voice steady, strong, and ultimately reassuring. "First and third wings will carry explosive tips and combat heads. Second wing will carry sleeping arrows along with double regular issue of combat heads."

"Yes ma'am!" Cici's number two barked in return, and after offering the salute both to his commander, and to the knight and squire before him, the captain turned to his duty with the same mechanical snap that had come so ominously from the rank of archers behind him.

"We don't mean to be in your way, Sis." Shibu said gently as Cici wrapped gentle but strong arms around both of her brothers.

"Don't be silly, my boys." Cici said gently as she hugged them close. "There's no other place in Bonta I would have you be. You two figure into all of my battle plans as one wing each of reinforcements!" Cici told him with a serious tone, and all of the commanding confidence she could muster.

"But for now, my guess would be that your next stop would be Felice and Felicity, am I right?" Cici asked as pointedly as one of her best hunting arrows.

Shibu nodded vigorously. "Yep-Yep!" He answered brightly. "King Louis said that the Kingdom is back at war as of right now." Shibu told Cici calmly, returning some of his confidence for hers.

In the face of all that she knew was coming, Cici's attractive face was decorated with an unusual smile. The expression was enough to raise a voiceless glance of question from Shibu.

"We're Rangers, Sir Shibu." She replied offhandedly. "It would seem our fate to never live any other way." Cici observed dryly. "Now it's in our hands, and our time will come tomorrow." Cici remarked, as she swept both of her brothers into a deeper, more sheltering hug than she had ever used before.

"Go on now, and let Felice and the Enripsa know what's going on. And Shibu?" Cici questioned at the last.

"Ya, sis?" Bonta's blue knight answered gently.

"In these times, you'd look better wearing your bow, then being without it. Let the people and the royal guards see you wearing it, along with your quiver. It will give them hope, just when they'll need it most." Cici instructed.

"I'll go back to the tower for them right after we talk to Mom and Felicity." Shibu answered resolutely.

"Before this day is out, the people of Bonta are going to know that their kingdom has one more knight to depend upon." Cici replied with a fiery confidence blazing in her bright green eyes. "Go on now, and I'll see you all at supper. We still have some things to decide as a family before tomorrow comes." Cici told her brothers as she turned back toward her assembled detachment.

This time, it was Shareef who cast their portal of departure. He did so after noticing that standing at his side, Shibu's fists were tightly clenched, and tears were rolling freely down his cheeks.

"Shareef?" Shibu said with a breathless quiet that carried an edge as sharp as a combat arrowhead.

"Yes, my brother?" Shareef replied in an equally urgent and sharp whisper.

"After we see mom, we get them. We go, and we get them. I won't see another life taken from among our own. Even if it costs me my own." Shibu hissed quietly, his voice strong, determined and dangerous.

"We walk together, my brother. Wherever the path may lead, I stand with you." Shareef replied with resolution in his own voice.

"Now let's go see Mom before we have to go. I'd feel better if they were warned, and if we could see her before we leave." Shibu replied.  
Together, the brothers jumped into the portal, and in a moment they vanished from sight.

It took only a moment for the two brothers to touchdown soft and silent in the small room off to one side of the hospital alcove. This way, the boys could travel quickly and naturally without being seen, and raising uncomfortable questions or outright alarm among the already nervous people that they could hear bustling about in the hospital just beyond the thick oak door which protected the small room.

Once he landed, and the portal faded from normal sight, Shibu took a moment to look around at the room itself. Originally, the small, heavily protected room was designed as both shelter and retreat for both troops and civilians, should battle ever come to the castle keep itself. As Shareef took the lead, and strode confidently toward the door, Shibu found himself suddenly grateful for the heavy construction of the small, secured space.

"I think Mom is still reorganizing the hospital." Shareef said with a common whisper that fit only in libraries and hospital spaces.  
Shibu nodded absently, and then returned his full concentration to the moment at hand.

Shareef paused at the great oak door, which was partly open to provide ventilation through the vast vaulted ceiling of the castle keep turned hospital once again. Before the brothers stepped through the door, Shibu reached out with confidence and gentle assurance, taking Shareef's hand in his own as the brothers ventured out into the cavernous space, which seemed to once again been transformed into an organized hive of activity.

The two of them walked together a few steps, looking both around them, and then upward with the same glance on the chance that Felice might have been near the crown of the magnificent dome ceiling that made up the castle keep. Part of Shibu was both relieved and reassured that nothing but air filled the underside of the great dome. It meant that both Felice and Felicity were somewhere in the great, dizzy crush of people, supplies, and even the first patients to be readmitted to the hospital.

Shibu blinked, and with no more thought or action than the common reflex, Shibu's sight turned from a diminishing daylight blue into the intense world of life energy around him. Wakfu itself always presented as an intense, pure energy of the most striking and pure shade of blue. Here and there across his field of vision, people, and every living thing from people to their pets, down to the flying insects who always sought out cool drafts around sunset seem to float across his vision as if done by an Impressionist painter with only the hues of blue on his pallet.

Those familiar to him showed themselves as more radiant in color, the shimmer of their life energy more intense to his eyes than the average surroundings, even though they were at the moment filled with so many other people that Even Shibu found it difficult to move within the crowd, or make any genuine progress toward an intended destination.  
For just a moment, Shibu felt Shareef's cold finger of fear as his brother dreaded the two of them being swept up like a flow of water circulating endlessly around an open drain.

So, still holding securely to Shareef by one hand, Shibu decided to use another of his Ranger skills to good and proper advantage. Every Ranger, no matter their rank or training station could use their voice to inflect the calls of songbirds, as well as the native sounds of many common animals. Shibu had taken to the skill as much as everything else the Rangers had taught him. But part of Shibu's great skill at learning new things was to reduce them in general to their simplest and most useful elements.

So as the circulating crowd swept Shibu and Shareef close to the center of the domed room, the two of them simply made a coordinated half step away from the crowd. This allowed Shibu to easily place two fingers at the corners of his mouth, and through an energetic exhale to whistle loudly enough so that the resident space of the great domed room amplified the natural sound he made. Had he done the same thing out-of-doors, the whistle might've been heard aboard Mendoza's flagship. But as it was, the wall of natural sound and the echoing sharpness of it knifed through the natural sound made by the movement and the voices of the throng of people who had swept them up together.

Shibu's whistle slashed through the space like the edges of a sharp arrowhead, drawing with it a fine curtain of silence behind the sharp and overpowering note that simply wiped away all noise, the same way a soft cloth would pick up and hold dust when cleaning out a room!  
Many of the assembled throng forgot what they were doing as their hands and fingers shot towards their ears like a flight of arrows loosed from the Cra detachment. It also enforced upon them the instant of quiet Shibu required to begin speaking, not only to the crowd, but to two very specific people within the multitude.

Yet, Shibu also knew that the acoustics within the keep were nearly perfect, and as the silence descended like the sweep of a sharp blade, every word he spoke, no matter its intonation or pitch could be heard clearly by everyone within the keep.

"Good citizens of Bonta." Shibu began slowly. "Once again, we find ourselves pressed together by adversity. But in this place, there will be safety and security for all of our people, even in the hour when danger approaches. This place has been a hospital, and a place of Secours." Shibu continued. "As it is once again at this the hour of our need. Be calm and in good spirits. Reach out your hands as you have so often before and help those around you who would help you." Shibu reminded them. While there was urgency in his voice along with his purpose, there was no trace of fear nor any hint of panic.

For a moment, the vast crowd was both still, and silent.

In that moment, another familiar voice rose up and spoke to them gently but firmly, giving them purpose and direction rather than aimless waiting.

"I request that the able-bodied males work for the moment carrying supplies for the hospital, and also assisting the elderly and infirm who cannot move so well or so fast. The ladies of Bonta are encouraged to volunteer as nurses, if they have a medical background, or as nurse's assistants to organize and see to patient care, feeding of the young, and the like."

The request for help came from a firm and steady voice that brought smiles wide to the faces of both Shibu and Shareef. The two of them had found for the moment the only aid in all Bonta that the two of them truly required. They exchanged glances, speaking the same word at the same time to one another.

"Mom!" Felice's sons said to each other with a relieved smile.


	35. Family Miracles

Shareef stood at Shibu side, both his eyes and his mouth wide open!  
"Is there nothing you cannot do, Shibu?" Shareef wanted to know with a humorous touch, knowing all the while that in humor there was truth. "In my land, you would be elected an Elder for being able to speak to people like that!" Shareef explained quietly.

"That's because your brother knows no fear of anything." Replied a familiar voice that belonged to a winged figure that shot across the room like an arrow to meet them.

Both of them were swept into her close, warm embrace as Bonta's best Enripsa healer and potion maker took a moment to settle in, and give both boys a good hugging that she knew somehow that they needed so much. "And you're just as brave, my darling Shareef. I think that between the two of you, you really can do most anything you set your minds to." Felice told both of them under gentle and loving eyes as she added kisses to two noses while she held them close together.

"So, my beautiful sons, what brings you back into the hive?" Felice asked, adding a touch of humor. "My pair of Rangers surely know where to find honey when they need it. But I know that something else brought you here. As much as I think that the bells of Bonta should bring for you both each and every day, this elder queen bee knows  
far better." Felice told him, continuing the metaphor which made both of her boys smile.

"We wanted to see you, Mom." Shareef confessed freely. "The Pirates have been sighted on the horizon. The wind is against them, but they will be here by this time tomorrow." Shibu told his mother in a quiet whisper, so that no one in the milling crowd except the two of them knew what Shareef had seen.

"King Louis says that Bonta is now under attack." Shareef himself added, bringing more weight to the conversation as the three of them huddled so close that no one outside of their own circle could hear the conversation.

"That matches the rumors we've been hearing since the Royal Guards reopened the keep and the rest of the castle as a shelter." Felice told Shibu and Shareef quietly. "Other Bontarian's have lives at sea, and when they look to the horizon, they see the same things that Shareef saw." Felice warned her boys. "So far, I've been able to use work and organization to hold down any trace of panic among the population, at least for the most part." She told them seriously.  
"You can head back, and tell Louis the things are well in hand here, for the moment. By this time tomorrow, we should be as ready as we can be for whatever comes." Felice related quietly, as she tightened her loving grip upon her two sons.

"I'll be going home in a little while." Felice mentioned casually. "I'm going to your tower, and I'm going to lay on supper for all of us, including Felicity, if that's all right with you boys?" Felice paused, asking the question.

"Sure mom!" Shibu replied brightly. "She's always welcome, as is anyone who is hungry or in need." Shibu added with certainty. "In a time like this, we have no right to close off any part of the castle just for our own use." Shibu replied more firmly.

Felice simply melted into both of them, kissing Shibu and Shareef tenderly as she held onto them, seemingly for life itself.  
"That's what I expected to hear from two Knights of Bonta." Felice replied proudly. "By the way, congratulations and all my love, as always, Squire Shareef." Felice added with a special look, and a second loving kiss for her olive skinned son.

"I wanted to ask somebody about that, but I won't bother the King. He's far too busy to hear questions from someone like me. And this is the first chance we've had to stop all evening." Shareef replied, his modesty showing in the blush of his high cheekbones.

"Don't you worry, my love." Felice replied. "King Louis can be fairly casual about that sort of thing, especially with what might happen tomorrow. When all this is over, He'll make sure you get the same ceremony that Shibu got when his turn came. For now, there's simply too much for all of us to do." Felice continued.

"I understand, mother. And I can certainly wait under these circumstances.”

"Just be yourself, and do what you do best, Shareef. King Louis already sees you as someone of experience and wisdom. In his eyes, that entitles you to the rank he gave you." Shibu explained quickly.

"I'll always do my best for my family, and for Bonta." Shareef replied modestly, not quite knowing what to say even as he said it.

"And that's why you're a squire!" Shibu explained brightly. "Take it from me, you'll pass the knighthood trials standing still, once Cici helps train you a little bit." Shibu explained hopefully to his brother.

"Oh Shibu, this is too much, at a time like this." Shareef answered. "I hope you won't think less of me for worrying about such things at a time like this." Shareef replied apologetically.  
He was relieved a moment later when both Shibu and Felice shook their heads. "You have to know things like this, Shareef, so you know what you're fighting for, besides your own life, and your own family." Felice told him seriously, as she slowly released the boys from her monster hug.

"Can we do anything here, mom?" Shareef asked by way of reply.

"No my boys, your skills are needed elsewhere. Get back to the throne room, and let King Louis know that his castle and his kingdom will be ready when he needs to call on them." Felice replied in a serious tone. "Meanwhile, if I know Shareef, the mention of dinner already has him thinking about one of the things he does best." Felice continued, far less seriously than a moment ago."Cooking, I'll bet."

Shareef didn't say anything by way of reply, even though Felice and Shibu would have been the only ones in the kingdom to hear it. Instead, there was a telling, almost feline smile in Shareef's expression that let both his mother and his brother no they were right about Shareef's true desire.

"When King Louis releases you, head back home, and lay the kitchen so it's as ready for action as this place will be, before I head home to join you both." Felice instructed, sounding rather formal, and every inch the Royal Consort.

"Well Shareef, I guess we have our marching orders for now, from someone as regal as the King." Shibu observed in good humor.

"We're going to portal back to the throne room, Mom. It'll save time, and you know we'll be safe there, until we get home." Shibu told his mother tenderly.

Felice spoke not a word. Instead, she kissed them both gently, just once more on their noses, and then let them go. By now, Felicity was probably buried beneath a pile of paperwork, and if she was to survive the day, let alone her first family dinner, the Junior Enripsa probably needed her help far more than her boys did.

"I'll be along shortly." Felice replied at last. If you happen to get him alone, hug the Royal stuffings out of King Louis for me, would you please?" Felice asked both her sons in the demure and quiet voice that she used only with the family, and only with the King, in private chambers.

"You bet we will, mom!" Shibu replied with bright and sure certainty that seem to pick up the spirits of the entire vast room around them. "We'll see you and Felicity for dinner, for sure!" Replied Shibu, as her son added an embrace of his own to the tender moment before they were parted, and the now organized and working crowd seemed to fold protectively over Felice once again.

Shibu sighed gently, and then dropped an ever confident hand onto Shareef's shoulder. "Come on, brother mine." Shibu encouraged quietly. The sooner we get back to the King, the sooner will be free to do what we have to do before tomorrow comes." Shibu observed.  
Shareef smiled and nodded in the direction that Felice had taken back through the crowd. Then he turned quietly and seriously to his brother.

"The sooner I can start protecting my family, the better I will feel, my brother Shibu." Shareef replied, as the Eliotrope brothers made their way slowly through the crowd, and back to the small heavy oak door, behind which they could safely cast a portal which would get them back to the throne room in only a moment.

As they walked side-by-side, Shibu found himself hanging on to Shareef pulling his brother gently but firmly into a one armed embrace as the two of them walked along together. They melted into a portal, and were back in the throne room in what seemed like only two steps of distance and time. Their audience with King Louis was brief, but close, as Shibu delivered Felice's messages of hope and encouragement, just when they seemed to do the most good. 

In less than a quarter of an hour, the pair found themselves back home. Shareef slid into dinner preparations with a practice and glee that made Shibu smile, as he helped his brother make supper for the family. The next three quarters of an hour was pure joy for both brothers, as Shibu combined portal techniques with Shareef's enjoyment and skill. As suppertime drew near, Shibu had almost forgotten that the rest of the evening would bring a moment of destiny for both of them.

Shareef finished the kitchen layout and a long list of simple kitchen chores, including grating, chopping, and slicing various ingredients, so that supper would come together more easily for Felice.

Shibu saw his brother smile with delight and satisfaction as he carefully washed and dried the best carving knife in the kitchen, laying it to one side on a special chopping block near a long counter that overflowed with a long list of basic ingredients, all of them prepared for fast and savory cooking.

Almost as soon as he set the knife down, there was a familiar flutter of wings at the double glass doors which opened out onto Felice's balcony.

Shibu instantly summoned a pair of portals, and before Felice could close the doors behind her, she had both the boys in her arms, and was positively radiant with happiness.

"There's my boys!" Felice remarked gently as both Shibu and Shareef melted into a cascade of hugs and kisses. "Don't you two just have everything figured out for your mother?" Felice remarked gently as she sailed directly from the balcony, across the large common room, and through the narrow were archway which led to the pantry and the kitchen beyond.

"Shareef dear, I think Bonta has a new wizard!" Said Felice excitedly as she cast shimmering eyes over the sideboard, and all the ingredients at hand and ready. Even the baking fire in the brazier across the room was crackling and warm, as the iron baking racks Shibu had made all glowed a gentle shade of blue around the edges! They were already the perfect temperature for bread, or for dinner rolls, if they were done in small, quick batches, which was exactly the way Felice loved to bake them!

"Shareef, this is truly a marvel!" Felice gushed to her new son.

"When we get the chance, I'm going to turn you loose in the Royal kitchens, and let you cook for King Louis and The entire Court!" Felice told Shareef gladly.

The thought stopped Shareef where he stood for just a moment, even high up on the balcony with the entire expanse of the tower apartment spread out at his feet.

"The Royal kitchens!" Shareef repeated, his green eyes bright with the prospect of cooking with every ingredient he could ever possibly ask for, or imagine, in nearly unlimited quantities. For anyone who love to cook, Felice's promise was nothing short of a dream come true.  
Standing at his side, Shibu had to giggle gently at the wonderful expression on his brother's face. It was as if someone had taken an Enutrof into the Royal Vaults of Bonta, and told him to help himself to all the gold he could carry!

"That's one dinner I'll look forward to!" Shibu interjected, his hand slipping onto Shareef's shoulder to break the momentary spell woven by the hopeful promise.

"But for now, I'll take a home-cooked meal from mom over any dish prepared in the Royal Kitchens!"

As Shibu spoke, Felice could already recognize the hungry and hopeful expression that lit up Shibu's blue eyes. She had seen it a thousand times before, over meals a simple as a crust of bread, and a bowl of soup for a growing boy. But the expression in his eyes, and the light of his appreciation which seemed to light up the room made Felice happier than ever to begin making the best meal she knew how to make for her boys.

"Keep talking like that, and somebody I know will get a second helping of dessert!" Felice joked, teasing Shibu more than a little.  
Shibu replied by opening a portal, and almost before he had jumped into the open circle next to the balcony, he was standing in the kitchen, hugging Felice deeply and gently around the waist, even as she was trying to put on the stock for the soup to be served at mealtime.

Shareef dove into the portal after Shibu, and found himself standing in the kitchen alongside his brother and his mother.

"Is there something more you need, Mom, or is there something I forgot?" Shareef asked anxiously, even now in quest of absolute perfection both for his mother, and for the sake of the occasion.

"The only thing missing from this wonderful kitchen is a side of Cici, and a pinch of Felicity." Felice replied brightly. "Everything else is absolutely ideal. Shareef, I wish you could teach everyone in Bonta to run a kitchen like this." Felice told Shareef with a note of quiet pride in her voice.

"That's not a bad idea at all!" Replied Shibu, who was standing on the other side of Felice, enjoying the wafting cloud of scent that carried the aroma of the soup to come. "You've been all around the world, and I bet you've seen things, and even eaten some of them that not even the Royal chef would know about." Shibu conjectured. "I know that I will eat anything Shareef can cook, no matter where it comes from." Shibu added, brimming with confidence in both his brother's skills, and his own rising appetite!

Shareef smiled modestly at the pair of compliments from his loved ones. And the modest blush of his cheek gave a new sort of handsomeness to the olive skin set off by his white hair. "In the kitchen, and at the table, wherever we are together, my family will always be royalty to me." Shareef responded modestly.

"Rather than tease both of you with all this food, and to keep things a bit of a surprise, I should send you both off to look for Cici and Felicity." Felice observed gently. "It's not like either of them to be late for supper, not even a little bit." Felice went on.

"The way Felicity always seems to be in ten different places at once, I shudder to think how much she must eat to keep her wings moving so quickly." Shareef observed, partly in jest, but also partly in curiosity.

"Being Enripsa, she requires quite a bit. Being a young Enripsa, she requires all the more." Felice answered honestly. "As we mature, we tend to require slightly less, depending on our activity level from time to time." Felice added for Shareef's benefit. "We tend to be punctual for mealtime because we simply need all the energy we can get, nearly as soon as we can get it, Shareef."

Shareef nodded understanding, and gave his mother the warm smile that seemed to light up his slightly darker skin.

"So I see, mother." The Enripsa seem to emulate the hummingbirds, or even the fairies and dryads of ancient legend." Shareef observed.

"Enripsa are few in my homeland, but those who have made a home there are valued far above platinum for both their skills, and their abilities." Shareef filled in gladly. "I hope you don't mind my asking these things, Mother?" Shareef asked gently, not wanting to pry, or even more to hurt his mother's wonderfully sensitive feelings.

"Not in the least, my dear." Felice replied as she busied herself between the dinner salad and the sauce. "Asking is how we learn most of the time. Ask Shibu, who has never stopped asking questions, and who probably never will." Felice told Shareef with a warm smile and a wink of the eye toward Shibu.

"I decided the first time I picked up a book that I would never stop asking questions until I've learned everything I can learn." Shibu said, with a fond tone of memory in his voice as he spoke up. "Should I go and look for Cici and Felicity, Mom?" Shibu wanted to know. "That will give the family cooks a chance to simmer together while I'm gone!" Shibu said playfully.

"You may well need to find Cici first!" Felice shot back quickly. "It'll most likely take the two best Rangers in Bonta to corral that wild sprite of a girl." Shibu's mother observed quietly as she tossed the salad.

"But I do think she'd cry tears of joy if you were nice enough to escort her to dinner, my dear handsome Shibu. She quite fancies you, if you never have noticed, that is." Felice added more quietly as she put two more drops of oil into the salad dressing.

Shibu's soft sigh of response brought a smile to Shareef's face again. Shareef knew that Shibu wasn't one half as casual about people or events as he sometimes seemed to be.

"So she says, mom." Shibu replied, sounding just a bit tired around the edges. "She wants to marry me, and she's already thinking about a family." Shibu confessed quietly to his mother. "She is a real and for true sweetheart, and I never want to hurt her anymore than anyone else." Shibu continued more quietly as he spoke. "But I won't hide away my feelings, or who I am." Shibu continued after a beat. "The problem is that she just won't see that I'm already spoken for."

Shibu explained gently. "I've told her so, too." Shibu explained. "She says it doesn't matter to her, because she loves me so much."

"It seems my son is no longer the boy from the small village so far away." Felice replied. "Half of Bonta would do anything in the world for you, my sweet Shibu. And any girl that says otherwise would have to know that she's fibbing. And the other half of the population would envy you your choice." Shibu's mother observed quietly." "As long as you two are happy, I won't be too nosy." Felice added casually. "Just now, maybe you'd better collect yourself, and go looking for the girls. It is rather past time, and I shan't want anything to be cold or hard at supper time."

"All right mother, love you!" Shibu said brightly before his fingers moved, and he slid into a portal and out of sight.

"Shareef, sweetheart?" Felice asked her other boy gently and quietly.

"Yes, mother?"

"I know you love Shibu is much as I do, so I know you will take care of him, no matter what, forever and for always." Felice told her other son.

"I tell you, Mother mine, truly." Shareef began by way of reply. "I love him more than my life itself, and just like you and Cici, and even King Louis himself, I would give Shibu everything and anything he would ever ask for." Shareef told Felice gently." My love for you, for Cici, and even for King Louis runs as deeply as Shibu's own love for all of you." Shareef said quietly.

"I know dear, I believe in both of you." Felice replied in a gentle and calm voice. "The two of you are the miracles of my life, dearest Shareef. Because the second of my sons is a lustrous pearl, who rescued my Shibu from a life of loneliness, as surely as he rescued you from the shoals that day." Felice told Shareef honestly." I love you as much as I love Shibu, because both of you came to me as miracles." Felice added quietly. "All I will ever ask is that you take care of each other the same way that I will take care of both of you, Cici, and Louis too." Felice asked Shareef, kissing him on the nose lovingly.

"We are a family, mother. Now, forever, and for always. I love you, just as deeply as I do our wondrous Shibu. Cici has brought to my life a brilliant light that has driven the shadows away from my past, and lights up my future. I would move every tree in every forest of Bonta, and plant one thousand more for each one I move, if she would but ask it of me." Shareef told Felice softly." And so, she is also a blessing of love to me, just as you and Shibu are, in the same fashion, holders and keepers of this wandering heart." Shareef replied, snuggling gently into Felice, as she sliced the fresh bread which Shareef had left ready upon the sideboard.

"I love you too, my son, because you are part of my other son, and because we are all parts of one another." Felice told Shareef in a loving whisper.

"Come along quick now, and let's lay the table for supper, before they get back, and see me in tears with my beloved son." Felice said at last, as she carefully collected a stack of royal bone china plates and walked on tiptoe with them toward the table a few steps distant. Felice set them down daintily on the table, along with the platinum flatware that bore the royal seal.

Once her hands were free, Felice wrapped Shareef into her usual loving and tender hug. "May my miracles never cease, my beloved Shareef." Felice whispered to Shareef quietly. "Now please give your mother a kiss, so she has the strength to get through supper without showing weak eyes to her loved ones." Felice asked Shareef quietly.  
Shareef displayed a hint of his true feline strength, sweeping Felice up and off of her feet, and allowing his mother to sit serene and steady on his forearm, as Shareef embraced her gently, kissing her softly once on each of her cherubic cheeks. "Love you, mother mine."

"Love you always, my miraculous boy." Felice replied gently, returning Shareef's gentle affections.


	36. Plate Tectonics

Felice watched in utter fascination as Shareef walked over to the small dinner table, and picked up the stack of royal plates.  
With a casual wave of his finger, which seemed at first to point to empty air, five blue circles appeared just above the tabletop. Another seemed to hover directly in front of Shareef as he picked up the stack of plates, and with a quick flip of his wrist and fingers sailed each plate individually into the portal nearest to him.

Felice gasped, clinching her teeth at the expected sound of shattering china. But each plate seemed to levitate from its own separate portal, to make a gentle landing in front of one of the chairs surrounding the table.

Felice barely had time to be surprised, when she saw Shareef collect the other elements of the place settings. One hand filled with forks which bore the royal seal, and the other filled with the matching butter knives.

Shareef returned to a spot in front of the portal he had used before. Felice saw new and deeper concentration flicker into Shareef's green eyes as her son used a practiced flip of his thumb on each hand to send five groups of knifes and forks into the center portal. Once again, Felice watched with amazement as the cutlery for each place setting settled gently at the side of each perfect plate, exactly into the spots where etiquette demanded that they be set!

Felice looked at her son as if his white hair was a crown, her admiration for his fine skill shimmering in her eyes.

"My stars!" She exclaimed on the edge of a surprise whisper. "I see you and your brother have been practicing!" Felice said with a bright smile.

"Shibu taught me a few tricks, nothing more really. I'm still a novice." Shareef replied modestly. "If you want to see something truly amazing, come to visit some afternoon when Shibu is juggling full casks of healing potion between portals. It is truly amazing watching his balance and coordination. I think he could move all of Bonta Castle if it suited him." Shareef told his mother, with the same sort of quiet awe that was in his mother's whisper a moment before.

Felice smiled knowingly at Shareef, smiling ever so slightly before she replied. "We best keep that idea to ourselves, at least until King Louis approves the expansion of the castle." Felice whispered in confidence. "Sometimes your brother tends to be slightly overeager about certain things, Shareef!" Felice told him with a passing whisper.

Shareef smiled in return. "I know, mother. Every day he shows me dozens of amazing things that he can do with portals. I have spent time wondering if there is anything in this world he cannot do, if he applies his will to the task." Shareef observed quietly.

"That's our Shibu." From baby birds to blocks of stone, we've seen him grow up, and he's never failed to meet any challenge. Your brother has the heart of a dragon, as well as the horns, Shareef. That's a good thing to know, and to remember." Felice replied gently.  
For just a moment, Shareef looked oddly at Felice, wondering if a mother's intuition had discovered the plan which the brothers had hatched between them.

"What's the matter, dear?" Felice asked casually.

"We still need glasses for the table." Shareef replied quickly, without sounding like he was covering up his own thoughts. "But those, I will set by hand, so I don't have to sweep the floor, or the table before dinner, or after it." Shareef continued casually.

"I think that's a fine notion, sweetheart." Felice replied with a bright smile. "It saves time, work, and most of all, the royal glassware." Felice finished with an infectious giggle that had Shareef laughing in the same moment as his mother.

They parted briefly, so Shareef could gather glasses from the cabinet where they were kept. Felice fluttered up from the table and disappeared from sight for a moment, only to return with a large bouquet of fresh flowers, which she set with a gentle touch into a fluted vase at the center of the table, while Shareef placed the glasses near each plate on the table itself. When he was done, he stepped back, and Felice skimmed over to hover at Shareef side, looking things over with a gentle but critical eye.

"There now!" Felice explained with satisfaction. "As pretty as a chalk drawing, and quite suitable for our guest." Felice continued, admiring the dining room that had been carved out from the main room by the perfectly set table and the circle of matching chairs. As he looked over the assembled dining room furniture, Shareef noticed the two of the chairs did not match the others. The unique chairs had long vertical openings in their backs, so the back of the chair itself was more like a panel set into the wood. It took Shareef a moment, but after a second look at their unique arrangement, he caught on quickly.

"Wings!" He whispered quietly.

Felice smiled at him and winked. "You are a sharp one, my son!" No wonder Felicity is as fascinated with you as she is with Shibu." Felice observed.

The expression of surprise on Shareef's face brought another giggle from Felice.

Shareef's response was his familiar white smile, set off all the more by his olive skin. "Matchmaking, mother?" Shareef asked playfully.

"No, dearest, not really. But you deserve to know as much as Shibu does, about where Felicity has her cap set." Felice replied amiably. 

"Not that I would mind having another Enripsa in the family, but I have to be as honest with my own heart, as you have been with Shibu's." Felice continued. "She's out to catch herself one of the two of you as a husband." Felice told Shareef honestly. "She would do anything in the world for both of you if she thought it would improve her chances with one or both of you."

"She does seem rather intense at times." Shareef observed. "A contest of wills between Felicity and Shibu might provide Bontarian's with an entirely new pastime, although I am not sure if it would be quite as much fun for both of them, as it would be for the citizens." Shareef replied studiously.

"I've seen how she works, both professionally and personally. She's attractive, intelligent, cunning, and a bit ruthless at heart." Felice warned quietly.

"In short, she is dangerous." Summarized Shareef shortly.

"I think so, yes dear. But whom she is more dangerous to is a question that I fear to consider, let alone answer. When you get the chance, let your brother know to be careful, dear." Felice told her son carefully.

"I shall, mother." Shareef replied with a tone of certainty in his voice. "But for tonight, we can all be one happy family. At least that may make Felicity happier too."

"Come along now dearest, and help me with the main course. That roast is as nearly as big as I am." Felice observed with a ready smile.

"Right away mom." Shareef replied. "I hope it doesn't get cold before Shibu and Felicity return.

"That's why I'll keep basting it until they arrive. And then I'll need you, and quite possibly some portals to get it safely to the table." Felice observed with a smile.

"You think it's safe to use portals in front of Felicity, Mom?" Shareef wanted to know.

"This is our home, dearest. It's also an Eliotrope home." Felice said with determination. "At home, you can be, and you should be who you are. If Felicity wants a place in the family, she's got to know sooner or later, and we've got to know if she really can keep a secret." Felice said quietly.

"So it would be as much of a test for her to see me use portals as much as moving the roast would be by itself." Shareef considered for a moment, admiring his mother's sagacity and her own clever mind.

"That's right, dear." Felice replied. "Sometimes the smallest things speak with the loudest voices. And sometimes, they don't."

"Well if they don't get here soon, we'll each have an extra ration of meat, that's for sure. Tomorrow, if we go to war, you won't find a roast one quarter so large anywhere in Bonta." Shareef replied.

Shareef was sorry he had said it a moment later, when he saw the light of worry flicker across his mother's usually bright eyes.

"Don't worry, Shareef." Felice answered quietly. "Let tomorrow take care of itself. For tonight, I just want to be with my family."

"Me too, mother, me too." Shareef replied as he stepped over from his side of the table, and hugged Felice tenderly.

* * *

Shibu took a seat on a small wooden stool in the corner. He glanced over at the door, making certain that the solid slab of oak and iron was completely closed, and that no one could enter the room without turning the great iron ring which was both doorknob and key.  
Once he was certain that he was both secure, and alone, Shibu took up the hardest part of the evening for him.

He waited.

He had made a bit of a show of walking through the huge vaulted ceiling room at the center of the keep. As it had been for the storm only a few days past, the center of the castle was once more both a hospital, and a place of shelter for citizens who had none, or those who had heard the rumor of the would-be pirate attack upon the city of Bonta.

Shibu had instantly been recognized, mostly by the children, who avidly followed his career as a ballplayer. He'd spent time with each one of them, talking to them, and signing autographs for them, this time on small pieces of paper as they had no boofballs to sign for him. It had taken only a few minutes, and left a group of scared uncertain children with a new glow of hope in their eyes, in place of the fear they had felt before.

Shibu already knew that once the hospital staff knew he was here, it would take Felicity even less time to hear about it, and to begin searching in her own way to find him.

He looked up for a moment, toward the great Oak and iron door, and by way of experimentation, Shibu tried using his wakfu centered vision to see through the massive door in front of him.

It required only an extra moment of concentration, but in a moment, Shibu could see each of the figures within sight of the door, were gathered in the great room with the vaulted ceiling! It was the first time Shibu had ever tried "pushing" his ability to detect the life energy that came from every living thing.

People large and small could initially be seen as slightly softer blue outlines, which sharpened in detail as Shibu concentrated on them individually. He quickly discovered that he could tell children apart from adults distinctly by their size, and corpulent, rounder people from thin ones by the natural shape, and the way that the blue energy radiated over and around their bodies.  
He had been so busy in what seemed like the last few days and weeks that he had almost no opportunity to watch people. It was one of Shibu's favorite pastimes, and when he could engage in without bothering anyone, while developing his own skills with his own natural abilities.

Shibu increased his concentration, gradually trying for deeper levels of detail as he focused his mind on individuals, and even animals and plants beyond the armory door.

He was enjoying himself so much that he barely noticed another blue form sweep into his vision, diving headlong from the very top of the vaulted ceiling toward the door in front of him.

He had seen Enripsa before with his augmented sight. But this new presence was more slender, almost too thin in some ways, and her wings beat so quickly that they left behind a haunting blue after image that seem to move like a familiar following its master. The new form flashed downward toward the door like a sped arrow, and almost before Shibu could hear it, there was someone turning the great iron ring to open the armored door.

Shibu quickly blinked, returning his sight to normal vision as Felicity poked her head around the heavy door, looking for all the world like a surprised squirrel, who had just discovered a large cache of nuts!

"So there you are, Mister blue and bright!" Felicity said brightly. "Hope you weren't waiting very long just for my sake." Felicity said semi-apologetically.

"No, not at all." Shibu replied almost without thinking. "With the crowd gathering out there, I thought you might be more than a little busy." Shibu answered.

"That's for sure!" Felicity said, with a note of aching pain in her voice. "Nights like this make me wish that every Enripsa had a spare set of wings." The young healer observed. "In a few hours time, we think that as many as eighty out of every hundred Bontarians may be taking shelter in here with us."

Shibu made a mental note of the urgent figure, and the situation it represented. But then he forced his mind to move on quickly, to other matters, closer at hand.

"Felicity?" Shibu said quickly, cutting her off before Felicity could say anything more. "I came along to invite you to supper with the family tonight." Shibu told her simply and directly before she could ramble on.

The surprise of the moment, and the delight in both her eyes and written across her face was enough to stop her from chattering.

"I accept!" Were the only two words her surprised voice chirped out quickly. "Since you're here, my sweet blue boy, you'll wait for me a couple of minutes more, won't you, sweetheart?" Felicity said with a more breathless slowness, her mind still overcome with the pleasant shock and surprise of the moment.

"Sure." Shibu said with characteristic simplicity. "Take your time."  
"What a sweet, gallant gentleman you are, my Blue Knight!" Felicity replied.

Suddenly, Felicity was up and flitting around the room quickly. She seemed to bounce into a smaller alcove, setback and slightly away from even this smaller room.

Shibu decided to busy himself by counting the stones in the floor of the small room. He heard a sudden rush, and then a flush of water, and before their echo passed away, Felicity bounced back into the room, seemingly on silver wings, looking brighter and more refreshed than before.

"I hope you can forgive me, Shibu." Felicity said, sounding slightly smaller and contrite. "I don't have any makeup here, to make myself look better for you or for the occasion." Felicity explained sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it, Felicity." Shibu said with characteristic simplicity. "That sort of stuff really doesn't matter to me, or to us. As long as you are you, that is all that matters for us." Shibu reassured her, as he reached out and took her hand in a delicate but sure grip.

"You really are the sweetest thing!" Felicity replied, having been rendered nearly breathless at Shibu's touch!

"Knowing mom, and knowing Shareef, they probably have supper on about now." Shibu suggested gently.

"Well then, it would be impolite to keep them waiting." Felicity remarked. But suddenly, the young Enripsa stopped, nearly doubled over with a fit of giggles!

Shibu didn't know quite what to make of the moment, so he waited for Felicity to catch her breath and speak.

"You know what this means, naturally?" She inquired gently of Shibu.

"Dinner?" Shibu answered simply.

Felicity smiled. "No silly!" She replied grinning from ear to ear. "You're taking me home to meet mother!" Felicity said coyly.

Shibu looked at her, somewhat puzzled, the emotion showing on his face without a word being spoken. After a moment he said "But you already know my mother." Shibu replied, more than a bit confused.  
His simple expression brought Felicity to another fit of the giggles! 

"Oh my sweet Shibu, you are absolutely priceless!" Felicity answered without answering his confusion. "Let's go, while I can still fly, Sir Shibu!"

"All right." Shibu replied simply, as he put down Felicity's strange behavior to lack of food.

For just a moment, Shibu thought about casting a portal, but he restrained himself for the moment. It was still a family secret, and inasmuch as Felicity had saved his life, and Shareef's too, Shibu wasn't absolutely certain that Felicity was in any condition to have so much of her world changed so quickly. But as they walked out of the small room, and together across the keep toward the interior passageway to the tower, Shibu realized that the evening had only begun.


	37. Un Petit Dîner en Famille

The tender moment between mother and son was interrupted by a single shaft of blue light. This wasn't a portal, but the increasingly pure light seem to fill the tower room as if someone had lit many racks filled with large candles. The gathering light grew brighter and more intense, until the blue shaft itself touch the white stone floor of the tower room.  
The luminous intruder was one which both Shareef and Felice had learned to recognize.

An arrow of recall!

Both mother and son exchange quick glances and happy smiles as the light not far away became brighter still, but generated no amount of heat that would be dangerous. From the center of an almost pure sphere of blue light, a familiar outline could be seen. It instantly became as sharp and solid as any mixture of shadow and light.  
As the illumination from the arrow faded away, only Cici was left behind, standing in the space that had been filled with a pure blue light!

"Welcome home dearest!" Felice spoke up first, beating Shareef by only half a syllable. So he simply stood back and smiled while Felice did the welcoming.

Cici had her own radiant smile, but it was an expression which not even her own family saw often enough.  
But tonight, her smile was nearly as bright as the arrow which had brought her home from a far distance across Bonta.

"Hello, family mine!" Cici spoke up with mock formality. "How's everyone, and where exactly is everyone?" Cici asked.

Halfway across the wide room, Shareef had to smile. Absolutely nothing escaped the unnervingly casual hawk like gaze of an experienced Ranger. Shareef had seen the same skill from Shibu as they had walked through Bonta's marketplace. As the pair of them had strolled by a never-ending selection of open stalls, Shibu could glance at each and every one, and very quickly callout a number.  
It became almost like a wager between the brothers. Shibu would stop, and standstill once he called out the number, seemingly by choice. And then Shareef would walk over, and discreetly count the number of eggs, melons, or fruits stacked or piled for sale at a specific merchants stall.

It was one of the ways Shibu used to prove the usefulness of Ranger training and skill. Shibu took visible delight, as he stood back silently and allowed Shareef to finish his count. In the end, they always matched, and a cold chill always trickled down Shareef's spine, as he looked back at Shibu, who doubled over with laughter most of the time at Shareef's shocked expression!  
Cici could instantly fix the number of people within her sharp vision, and their location and height within the space of any normal room. For an archer, the learned skill of "reading" a room, without moving one's eyes was pure instinct, and absolute survival for those who lived and ate, by their bows.

"We just sent Shibu to collect Felicity, and then we were going to have the two of them collect you." Felice told Cici easily.  
"Don't bother." Cici replied using short words, but without a clipped or angry tone about them." Unless my eyes are failing in the gathering darkness, they should be about three quarters of the way along the interior passage." Cici informed them both. "You might want to open the inside door for the two of them. They'll be here quickly enough." Cici said calmly.

Shareef was slightly more demonstrative in his welcome for Cici.  
He gathered to jump, using the slight movement of his finger to create a portal as he moved. A heartbeat later, another sort of blue light appeared over Cici, making her appear to sparkle slightly as Shareef hopped into the portal, and seemed to tumble down upon Cici from midair, as if Shareef had caught the legs of some passing hawk, and casually dropped out of the sky, playfully pouncing on his sister!

But Cici was ready.

Faster than he could see it, Cici shouldered her bow, and held out a pair of empty arms slightly bent at the elbows in a basket shape in front of her. She moved back by a fraction of an inch from the waist, her feet still firmly planted where she stood, and Shareef dropped as gently into her arms as a light bundle of kindling. She greeted her unexpected guest with a smile, and a light kiss planted on his nose.

"Good evening Shareef!" Cici said brightly, looking Shareef over with soft green eyes that always seem to glimmer with a particular pride when she looked at him. "How's Bonta's newest squire?" She asked him with a touch of good humor. "Been studying hard?" Cici asked, as if this was the end of any other day which the family shared together.

"Yes, Cici." Shareef replied gently blushing as he did so. "Felice has been giving me study lessons in the art and culture of the Enripsa. One in particular, as a matter of fact." Shareef replied playfully.

"Let me guess." Cici replied. "I'll bet my bow that we're talking about the wild Felicity beast. Am I right, Shareef?" Cici inquired, with a slight rise in her voice and change in her expression that made the question seem more like gossip than information.  
"Yes, but it's not like that, not at all, Cici." Shareef replied fast.

The spill of words from her brother, together with another moment of blushing embarrassment brought Cici a gentle laugh, for which she paid by snuggling Shareef protectively in her arms as she held him.

"You're so cute, you could have any girl in the kingdom with only a look from those gorgeous green eyes, Shareef. And what's more, Felicity knows that just as well as I do." Cici told him, now being half serious in her speech. "I bet that if she can't get anywhere with Shibu, her next goal will be to try making out with you!"  
Cici had to move quickly to set Shareef down, back on his own feet, so she wouldn't drop him as she was forced into gales of laughter by her brother's utterly shocked expression!

"Oh sweet Shareef!" Cici explained, as even she had to fight to keep her balance because she was laughing so hard! "Shibu's right, you're absolutely priceless!" The best of the Cra Archers told her brother. Between gulped breaths of air which were just enough to keep Cici from blushing as red as a tomato, and embarrassing her brother all the more.

"Felice was just telling me almost the same thing." Shareef observed as his surprise at the powerful display of feminine intuition began to wear off.

"She's probably right." Cici said, returning to short sharp words that always made a point. "Felicity is a sharp as an arrowhead when she wants something. But you'll have to watch her." Cici cautioned, lowering her voice slightly as she spoke. "If she can't get what she wants, that arrowhead can become a dagger very quickly." Cici continued by way of warning.

"I wonder what sort of life she's had that she thinks she has to get people the same way one buys melons in the marketplace?" Shareef asked, trying to bring his sharp mind to bear on what both his mother and his sister had told him.

"She is attractive, intelligent, and certainly well organized." Shareef observed. "Fine qualities that anyone her heart chose could easily find compatible with a wife, or with a mate."

"You have some of the same qualities about you, dearest Shareef." Felice spoke up. "But you have two things Felicity lacks, my dear son. "Experience and confidence." Felice continued. "Most of the time, she's too busy trying to be perfect, and defending what she thinks she ought to have from everyone else." Felice observed in return. "She leaves herself no time or chance to be herself without her fears of being imperfect in some way, and therefore, unattractive. Or so she fears." Felice observed quietly, and then she fell silent.

"Now I understand much more than I did before, thank you both." Shareef replied after a moment of consideration. "My earliest memories in the hospital now fall all into place, and I understand why Felicity was so brusque and hurtful with some of her words towards others, including Shibu." Shareef told his mother and sister together.

"We need not fear for Shibu." Felice observed quietly. "Try as she might, and she probably will, Shibu's heart is already spoken for, and I don't think much in this world or any other is going to change that anymore than you can change sunrises and sunsets." Felice told Cici and Shareef.

Cici started to ask a question, but not a word of it emerged after she drew a deep breath. She stopped as Felice made a subtle pointing gesture directly at Shareef.  
Cici gently exhaled, using a Ranger skill at quiet breathing, and nodded in understanding to Felice.

"Enough chatter for now." Cici nudged gently. Even with good words, air doesn't fill an empty stomach. I could eat a whole roast gobby, with fresh mint sauce!" Cici said brightly, reaching across the group to hug Shareef close and warm once more.

"I love you, Shareef. Just as much as I love Shibu. And just you remember that, all right?" She asked warmly as she set him down again upon his feet.

"If that's your way of asking for roast Gobball with mint sauce, I'll cook it for you every day of the week, twice a day!" Shareef replied brightly as he clapped a firm hug around Cici's waist and held her close in turn.

"My stars!" Cici replied quickly. "If I ate like that, I'd have to spend all my time exercising, or the rest of the detachment would have to haul me around in a cart!" Cici observed. "And as much as they would do it if I needed it, that's no way for a Ranger to get about!" Cici told Shareef playfully.

"Okay, Cici." Shareef answered, with both the light of challenge and devotion from his soft green eyes. "I'll make it for you just once. How about for dinner this time next week?" Shareef asked gently and earnestly. "It'll take me that long to perfect the spice blend, and the rest of the time to slow roast the Gobby." Shareef expounded on his promise and his preparations.

"Suits me fine, brother. I love your cooking is much as I love you!" Cici told him with a confident tone and smile as Shareef let go of her around the waist.

"It's a date then!" Shareef said brightly, but with the undertone of a solemn promise.

"And speaking of dates, thanks to your wise lessons in the ways of the wild Enripsa, I had better go and dress up slightly better for Felicity when she arrives." Shareef told the two women in his life.

"Go do what you need to do, dearest." Felice replied. "I think you may know before we do when Shibu and Felicity finally arrive."

The intuitive remark made Shareef smile, not for the first time tonight, and he literally bounced out of the room to dress for dinner, without the need to cast a portal this time.

Once he was safely away and could be heard moving around in a small alcove that was his bedroom closet, Cici turned quietly to Felice.  
"For the first time in a week, I feel confident about next week, rather than worried about it." Cici confessed quietly to Felice.

"That's life with an Eliotrope, dear." Felice observed quietly. "I would never tell either of the boys this, but I think those two literally brew hope by the barrel, and they let anyone who is thirsty dip in when they need it."

"Felice" Cici answered sliding across the room to stand next to Felice and share an overdue cuddle with her Enripsa mate. "Only someone who has your kind of heart can see the hope and strength that the two of them bring to Bonta." Cici observed as she took Felice gently into her arms and snuggled with her softly.

"Whatever tomorrow may bring, sweetheart, I promise you one thing. Bonta will never be without hope, nor without love, no matter what happens." Felice whispered as she melted into Cici's arms, and the two simply stood still, holding each other as the night gathered around them, seeming to rush too quickly toward tomorrow.

A few quiet minutes passed while Felice double checked both the menu and the table. But as she fluttered near to one of the triangular tower windows, Felice paused, and hung absolutely still in space for just a moment. Cici was worried until she saw the smile which spread slowly across Felice's cherubic continence.

“Shibu and Felicity?” Cici asked.

“Yep-Yep!” As Shibu would say.” Felice replied. “The two of them are walking up to the doors downstairs.” Felice added.

“Well, that preserves the Family Secret. At least for now.” Cici observed.

Almost before Cici had finished speaking, the slightly hollow sound of the main doors opening echoed thru and around the white stone tower. The sound caused the crystal glasses set out upon the table to quiver, filling the space with a note of music.

The pure sound made Cici smile.

Shibu was never one to think about fanfares, but after this day, Cici could think of no one who deserved it more than her two brothers.  
The sound of a rapid, sprinting step rang thru the circular iron steps, and before Cici could count three, Shibu was airborne, and sailing thru the air, directly at her!

“Hello, Sis!” Shibu said with happiness ringing in his voice. “I found a special someone to bring home for Family Dinner!”  
Cici plucked Shibu from the air, standing up as she moved, so that the Cra archer could swing her brother and fellow Ranger up to ride across her shoulders triumphantly.

“Welcome Home, Shibu and Felicity!” Cici told the pair of new arrivals.

For her part, Felicity found herself swept into Felice's warm embrace, to be kissed gently upon her nose.

“Welcome. Felicity, sweetheart.” Felice said gently as she welcomed the younger Enripsa to dinner, and to an occasion far greater than a simple meal between friends.

“Thank you so much, Felice.” Felicity said with a well-mannered curtsy to her Elder. “How could I refuse a warm evening with two handsome heroes of Bonta, and the very best food in the whole of the city?” Felicity inquired sociably.

All of the ladies present for the evening snickered politely as both Shareef and Shibu blushed, showing a skin tone that brought the rose color of the vanished sun into the room to illuminate the family gathering.

Dinner was a pleasant release from all the tension which seem to fill the large tower to overflowing.

Cici lent a careful hand along with Shibu and Shareef to bring the main course to the table.

The roast gobby was done to a turn, dense, well cooked meat that seemed to slide off the bone with the merest touch of a sharp knife.  
As quickly as it could be asked for, plates all around were piled high with a small mountain of thin sliced, savory, and flavorful meat.

But there was more to a family dinner than that. Felice had decided early on in the day that this occasion needed something else, and so she had made her favorite and most secret recipe, one which every Bontarian knew by reputation if not by taste.

The Enripsa seem to have a talent for mixing things, and this extended from the potion bench to the kitchen. Felice knew by heart how to make every sort of bread imaginable, given the most simple or intricate ingredients. But her specialty, which had made her known not only as a healer but as a baker was a savory sage cornbread which was as rich and decadent, some would say, as all the riches of the royal court. Rather than thin slices to accompany the meat, the cornbread came in large but light and fluffy cubes. It was moist, and sweetened with a mixture of honey and butter that gave the traditional bread a feeling as rich as any one could find in the royal banquet halls.

The dinner menu continued with a fine, fresh salad, made from the freshest greens that could be found in all of Bonta, and augmented with finally shaved slivers of a hard and dry Gobby milk cheese whose richness was almost too heavy for the tongue alone. But something near miraculous happened when it was mixed with the natural water to be found in the freshest greens, and the salad, almost like the meat in the cornbread became a rich and satisfying side dish that improve the taste and consistency of the meal in the mouth, and on the tongue.

Given the experience around the family table, the complexities of the menu were the easy part of this family dinner. As Shibu and Shareef sat down beside each other at the table after Felice, Cici and Felicity took their seats, Shibu realized that it had been nearly a full month since the family had been able to sit down together to eat and to socialize.

Although once he had food before him, Shibu's specialty became eating, rather than casual social conversation.  
In spite of the rich but simple food, and the good company of the family together again, the prospect of what tomorrow will bring hung in the air around the dinner table like an oppressive gray mist.

It wasn't a genuine topic of conversation, nor of commiseration, because everyone present new the subject matter all too well and they also knew that no amount of additional words could alter the thudding inevitability of what tomorrow might bring.

So dinner continued through most of the first round of service as a silent exercise in simple self renewal.  
For a while, Felicity's presence seem to fit well into the small family group. She was as hungry as the others, and had not had a truly fine meal in a longer time than she wanted to remember.

Most of the rations for on-duty medical and Administrative Assistants consisted of dried and salted meats and fruit with the occasional encounter of any fresh vegetable or egg being a matter for no small celebration.

The presence of hard-boiled egg in the dinner salad elevated the simple greens by another order of magnitude, and the salad bowl seem to fly or float around the table as much as the serving platter stacked high with thinly sliced meat.

But for Shibu and Shareef, there was also something unique for each of them when it came to washing down the rich and filling fare Felice had overseen.

Cici had once again proved her own reputation as someone who dealt routinely in the miraculous and wonderful.  
When her moment came, she unveiled her own surprise. Two small casks of rich Gobby milk, and a third filled with a fruit juice, whose slightly cloudy texture, but clean and refreshing taste was a legend among the Rangers.

Based upon clear, freshly squeezed Api juice as a central ingredient, the mixture held secret by the Rangers was a combination of bright herbs, and savory spices, combined with just a touch of natural fermentation that came from the honey which seemed the only natural partner for the goodness of the fruit juice.  
This mixture was what filled the flask that could be found on any Cra belt, and generally relieved the Rangers of the constant search for clean water should they find themselves in any unknown land, or faced as they sometimes were with military operations that could go for several days at a time.

Tonight, in consideration of what might come for her family members in the day ahead, Cici had decided to fortify them all in the very best way she knew how beyond her own love and affection for all of them.

So she had asked those under her command for their permission to share a uniquely Cra secret. The Garrison had voted unanimously to make a gift of as much Ranger cider as Cici could carry to their commander, for the sake of her family, all of whom were well known to every member of the detachment, even those reinforcements who had come late to the Garrison after the intercession of Master Chang. All of them had heard and seen Shibu at work and in action. The merest mention of need for himself or for his family was enough for the company of archers to vote to help the family of one of their own.

Every member of the detachment who could lift a bow understood that Bonta's Cra population had already united to make a stockpile of the unique cider, which was emblematic of not only the Ranger Creed, but of the goddess to whom the Cra population counted their blessings.

Most meals in Bonta, and in Bontarian homes were leisurely, relaxed affairs made for good fellowship and the natural enjoyment of good food, and good company. But tonight was unlike any other night Bonta had known in almost half a century.

As the savory meat and other good food flowed freely at the table along with the Ranger cider, each of the family members knew that there was an uninvited guest seated around the table with the group.

A little better than halfway through the meal, it was Shareef who pushed his plate back, as empty and clean as it had been when he himself had put it in place on the table. Shibu took one more sip of the Ranger cider, savoring it's wonderful taste, and the cool swift sensation of replenishment granted as all trace of thirst vanished as if the cider itself was a healing potion in another form.

"My sweet family." Shareef began quietly, for there was no need of raised voices nor complex words in this moment. "I love you all so very much. So much so that I find it almost more difficult than words to turn my thoughts to what tomorrow will mean to all of us."

The rest of the family laid down their tableware, and for the moment, pushed their plates back as well, so that Shareef could take the floor, and guide the discussion which everyone knew was a part of dinner as much as the meat, the salad, the cornbread, or the Ranger cider.

Shareef took a moment to reach out his hand, and it was instantly clasped by Shibu, who put out his own hand to Cici, and so on around the table, until the family circle was joined, and its members held one another as surely as they did in a deep and loving hug.

"Those gathered here are my family, as true and genuine as if I had been born among you, and raised up by you." Shareef began, keeping his words as simple and filling as the food on the plates on the table before him.

"No one wishes for struggle, or for warfare. But everyone who loves anyone, the way I love all of you would fight in every way, and with all the energy of life itself to see that you are protected. I make this vow of protection to all of you now." Shareef told his family with a quiet dignity and modesty in his voice that lent a sincerity to his words and the true feelings behind them.

"No one goes into battle to die." Shareef continued. "But do battle we must, to keep and hold safe and sound all that we love, and all that we treasure, in the face of someone who would take everything from all of us, for the sake of his own greed and ego. Tomorrow, I will stand up to this evil not for my own sake, but for the sake of the family and the city whom I love so very much. And we will turn back this evil together, and make us all a better way than we have known before, because we would love and care for one another for all time, for all the tomorrows to come." Shareef drew a deep breath, and the gentle grip he held on Shibu's hand on one side, and Felicity's smaller hand on the other became closer if not tighter on the fingers that he knew so well.

The next in rotation around the table was Felice, whose wondrous skill, and seemingly magical touch had worked as much with this marvelous food as it always did with any healing potion, when someone was in need.

Felice lifted her clear eyes a bit as she spoke to her family from her heart in turn.

"No mother, no family, no friend, desires to see someone that they love go into harm's way." Felice began slowly, her voice carrying the weight of her words, and her building emotions as she spoke to though she loved. "But, as my wonderful son Shareef has so well said, there are times when standing up before evil is necessary not only for what we hold dear, but to better the condition of all of those in need, and all of those weaker than ourselves." Felice paused, to look softly into the eyes of Cici across the oval table from her, and then with equal gentleness into the eyes of Shareef, who had spoken first, and her own dearest Shibu.

"The eve of battle is the most difficult time for any healer. Enripsa teaches us to spend our energies and our wisdom keeping whole that which is not sundered, and using our skills to restore all who may be injured along the journey through life." Felice continued. "Tomorrow, I shall join battle as well, in my own way, working for my larger family within the city of Bonta, with my sister Felicity always at my side. But it is you, family mine, most beloved of all who shall grant me the strength to face what tomorrow brings, and to bring healing and the nature of the whole back to our people, who lay under the shadow of a threat we must face, and must dispel for all of our friends to heal and to prosper. I love you all beyond life itself, and tomorrow, I will fight for you, to protect you, cherish you, and nurture you all, as I have done throughout my life. I do not fear what tomorrow may bring. Because I love you all, and would keep you all whole and safe, I am ready for whatever comes, and I will not give you up, not a one, not at all. Enripsa's promise and blessing upon my family, and the city we defend.”

Sitting nearby to Felice, and joined with her at the hand, Cici felt a gentle but powerful squeeze that seemed to melt through her hand and arm, and deep into someplace inside her. Cici drew a breath, gathered her thoughts, and spoke to her family.

"With tomorrow's Dawn, I go to battle with not one, but two families beside me, and surrounding me." Cici began, clearing her throat slightly as her emotions accented the words she chose.

"Cra gives us strength, wisdom, and skills. Every Ranger everywhere is committed at heart to the protection of the weak, and giving help to those in need." Cici said to the people she held most dear. "With tomorrow's dawn, a shadow may fall over all we hold dear. But our resolve to fight alongside one another, as well as for one another, gives us the strength to stand, dispel the shadow, and replace it with our own gentle light of justice and peace." Cici went on, speaking with a surprisingly gentle and lilting voice as she did so.

"We dwelt in the same village, drank from the same wells, and were provided for by the nature roundabout our village, what seemed so many years ago, but is only as yesterday to me." Cici continued.

"Tomorrow, we fight if we must, for a larger community, and the larger world, where the same things that bind us to small villages, bind us now to greater people whom we love, and most closely to the greatest people whom we love. Shibu, Felice, and I have grown up together, we walked together, and with the blessing of Cra, tomorrow, we will fight together not with hatred, nor greed, but out of the same simple and lasting love that we knew that first night together in the small village where we began. Cra has smiled benevolently upon us three, increasing our number, and multiplying our strength many times over with the addition of more beloved hearts and souls to the family we have become. If I must fight tomorrow at the side of my brothers and my sisters of the Cra family, it will be a fight just as much to hold and protect this family, my family, as well as the family and the fellowship granted me by the Goddess."

When his turn came, Shibu felt the familiar and gentle touch of Cici's fingers. They wrapped around his whole hand for a moment, as their fingers laced together and their hands became one. The loving touch, and the gentle unity of their grip gave Shibu the strength to speak, where he could not find it a moment before.

"I have fought before, against the bandits, swindlers, and fiends who would take from those I care for, to enrich themselves." Shibu told those around the table. "I do not relish fighting. I do not seek blood, fame, songs, or vainglory. Yet, there is a simple truth that is basic to all things, and to all peoples. We are stronger, we are wiser, and we make things better when we share." Shibu told his family. "I love you all. You are as much a portion of me as my fingers, my hand, my arms, or my life itself. All of these work best together, to share labor, to share love, and to make things better." Shibu said gently, pausing his thoughts to look directly at Felicity before speaking again. 

"Anyone who would take everything they have from people who are peaceable and seek no harm to others are among the greatest and darkest of evils. They come now to cast a shadow of greed and misery over what we have, over the things we have worked together to make. We must show them by our actions that their evil ways will not win out over what we have made together." Shibu said, with a new resolution in his voice as he finished. "Tomorrow, or any hour in which I meet this evil, I will fight with all my strength, with all my skill, and with all that I know to turn it aside, and drive it far away from the places, and the people whom I love so much."

“Felicity?” Felice asked gently. "Does our newest family member have anything she wants to say?"

Felice's simple and direct question obviously took the younger Enripsa by surprise. Felicity gasped lightly, her limpid eyes showing surprise, wonder, and a momentary touch of the uncertainty and fear driven from her as she heard Felice's unique question.

"I wouldn't know where to begin, or the fancy words that I should use to tell you all how much I have come to love and care for all of you. I came at first as a predator, not unlike those aboard the ships at sea. I was hoping to steal something for myself, to give my life meaning, and seek out the love which I have never known before this very night." Felicity began, her voice unsteady and unwavering as she tried to paddle upstream against the current of the thoughts flowing from her mind and heart.

In a moment, she was done fighting, because she had no more strength herself.

"Go on, sweetheart." Felice advised her Enripsa sister gently. "The words will come to you, if you let your feelings flow from your heart, like the liquid from Enripsa's flask."

Across the table from Felice, Felicity nodded gently, steadied herself, and found the strength to go on, not from within herself, but from the people who held her hands around the table.

"At first, I only wanted people as possessions. Like charms on a bracelet. I was greedy, and I was selfish. But still, you took me in, all of you, even those I tried to take for myself, because I knew no other way." Felicity confessed. "But being with you, and being one with all of you, you forgave me, and lifted me up, to share life and love with all of you. You have redeemed me from myself, I bless you, I love you all, you are my family one and all, in love, and in life, forever." Felicity told her family. "I am not powerful, I have no great strength, and it seems that I barely know who I am without all of you to show me. All I can say to you now beyond my unconditional love for all of you is to make you another promise which I will strive to keep." Felicity told the group in a voice made more quiet still by the young Enripsa's rising emotions. "Today, tomorrow, or any day to come, if anyone tries to hurt you, or to take from you, I will fight alongside you, just as hard as I can, not for the sake of battle, nor for the sake of only what is right. If I fight, it will be for the sake of my family's love. The family I have now always to treasure."

Felicity's testimony was finished not by silence alone, but by the gentle sound of her own tears dropping one at a time onto her dinner plate, and causing the bone china to ring with a gentle, almost musical note of purity.

"For someone who didn't know what to say, I'd say you did very well indeed, my Sister Felicity." Shibu remarked quietly from across the table.

The family fell silent for a moment, as Felicity's gentle and pure smile seemed to add illumination to their dinner table like a newly lit candle.


	38. Dinner and Deception

Chapter 38

The emotional state of the room kept the rest of the meal portions small and quick, mostly because of swollen throats, and the shift in focus to what they had for the family.  
The Gobby milk vanished quickly, in the form of a rich custard which Shareef seem to produce using his own special brand of magic. By the time the group had sated their appetites, and wiped away one another's tears, the hour had drawn much later, closer to midnight than anyone had thought.

Suddenly, the tomorrow which everyone had marked was nearly upon them. The morning would bring final preparations for the battle to come, as Mendoza's progress with his black fleet would be finally visible to all Bontarians.

Felice and Shibu exchanged glances as the last hour of the old day advanced. Just as there was a time for everything else in their day together, the hour had come for the family to sleep if they were to be any great service to the people and to their city, as well as to the King.

"Mom, you and Cici take the large round bed tonight. Shareef and I will sleep like Rangers, so that when we get up in the morning, our bodies will be ready for the rest of the day." Shibu invited warmly.  
"And what about me?" Felicity asked after a moment. "Would you need someone to keep watch?" She asked seriously.

Shibu could not hide his expression of admiration for his new sister's thinking, and her readiness to sacrifice for the group. But he also knew better, and he said so.

"With all of us here together, this is one of the safest places in the kingdom." Shibu answered after a moment of consideration for Felicity's sake. "I'm sure Mom and Cici can find a warm spot for you on that big bed of ours." Shibu said at last. "Thanks for thinking about all of us, Felicity." Shibu complemented her gently.

"It's all right, Shibu." Felicity whispered gently in return. "I find myself wanting to, and enjoying thinking about all of us together." The young Enripsa confessed.

"Now that's my sister!" Shibu replied with a quiet note of enthusiasm. "Go on in there, and keep mom company." Shibu told her quietly. "I know she puts on a brave face, but she's also worried about what comes next." Shibu told her quietly.

"For that matter, Shibu, so am I." Felicity admitted. "But my promise holds. If Mendoza and any of his thieves show up, tonight, tomorrow, or sometime next week, I'm going to do my very best to make them just as sorry as I possibly can."

Shibu gave Felicity the confident smile that always melted her heart. "With you on our side, we just can't lose." Shibu said airing a bit of the boundless confidence that made the quiet red and silver Eliotrope a natural leader, born to the Rangers.

Felicity didn't speak. Rather, she took a page from Shibu's own book, and showed her thanks and hope by simply throwing her arms around Shibu's broad shoulders, and trying her very best to hug him until he burst!

Shibu gently folded his arms around her, holding her gently, and lifting her off of her feet in the tradition of his best hug. Shibu held her for a long moment, and when he set her down again, Felicity was closer to the consistency of warm licorice than the stiff, somewhat distant Enripsa he had met only weeks before.

"Go on, sweetheart. Go get some sleep. Once the three of you are comfortable and together, I'll sleep better as well." Shibu instructed gently but firmly.

Felicity was in no condition to do anything but bob her head in response to Shibu's instructions.

"All right, handsome. I'll go and see that Felice and Cici are comfortable and warm, just to ease your mind." As Felicity replied, she was already headed for the large bedroom, although Shibu could not help but notice that her every third step was slightly sideways in progression as she moved.

Shibu and Shareef turned themselves to the leftovers, and the dinner dishes, cleaning up, packing, and preserving all the food that remained, knowing it would be wanted and needed both in the morning for breakfast, and perhaps later on in the day, when mealtimes stood a chance of becoming a far less formal, and possibly more hectic affair.

While he worked at Shareef side, cleaning the dishes, Shareef was the first to notice that his brother also kept his attention partly on the great arched doorway which led into the grand bedroom. Shareef noticed that Shibu seem to be counting, and when is counting paused, Shibu took Shareef by the hand, and quietly, as only a Ranger could, he walked his brother around the corner from the kitchen, into the deepest part of the secluded pantry, where the two of them could speak in quiet whispers.

"We can't leave until we're certain that the others are deep asleep." Shibu said to Shareef. "They would never let us go otherwise. I think mom might even call the Royal guard if she knew what we plan to do tonight." Shibu whispered to his brother.

"If I were in her place, I might call them too, brother mine." Shareef replied in his own gentle whisper. "I hate to think about it, but have you considered using a sleeping potion?" Shareef asked quietly. "The mist of dreams potion would keep them asleep until well past dawn, and I know that not even Cici would be able to resist it." Shareef thought aloud.

For a moment, Shibu considered the idea. He had never dreamed that while he made the potions by the hundreds, that one of them might be used to protect his own loved ones.

Just as the idea began to win him over, another soft whisper cut in to their nearly silent conversation.

"And just exactly where would you two be going, anyway?" Asked a familiar female whisper.

"Felicity!" Shibu whispered in obvious but suppressed surprise. "What are you doing here?" Shibu half stammered with the shock of the rude surprise.

"I live here now, remember?" Felicity snapped, sounding a bit more like the Enripsa both brothers had met less than a month before. "I came to say good night to Shareef, and to make sure he's all right before I go to bed." Felicity informed Shibu in a curt whisper. "And I'm glad I did!" She added sharply. "Whatever it is you're hatching, this Elliotrope conspiracy is now a trio, or else!" Felice whispered quietly but firmly to both of her new brothers.

"Since when is counting stores in the pantry some kind of conspiracy?" Shibu replied, turning a bit of a surprise to useful tool to allay suspicion.

"You know me better than that, both of you!" Felicity snapped, her whisper rising slightly as she spoke. "And I also know that the two of you are the worst liars in all of Bonta." She observed scornfully.  
Here she paused for a moment, and took both of her new brothers under sharp eyed and incisive gaze that made the two brothers squirm uncomfortably in the presence of their new sister.

After a moment, it was Felicity who was shocked, so much so that her mouth hung open, and her eyes seemed to grow to the size of tea saucers!

"You're going out there, aren't you?" Felicity asked with an urgency suddenly powered by a jolt of panic. "You're not going to wait for Mendoza and his goons to get here. You're going to attack them tonight, aren't you?" She wanted to know. By the time the young Enripsa was finished speaking the icy light of near panic filled her bright eyes, and nothing either of the brothers could say could disprove the truth she read in their eyes as they looked back at her in silence.

For just a moment, Felicity stole a quick look behind her, toward the bedroom beyond the archway. In that same moment, Shibu was certain that the younger Enripsa planned to waken Felice and Cici.  
But Felicity slowly look back toward her brothers, not raising so much as a whisper of alarm in her voice, but leaving the fear in the light of her eyes.

"Well don't just stand there, it won't be night forever. Let's get going." Felicity whispered to both Shibu and Shareef.

This time, it was Shareef's turn to be shocked, at Felicity's implication. "Who exactly do you mean, sister Felicity?" Shareef asked, bringing a moment of needed calm to the whispered conversation.

"Simple, my beautiful white haired brother." Felicity replied as calmly as Shareef had asked the question. "I'm going with you, both of you." Felicity whispered flatly to both of them, her commitment and stubbornness audible even in her finest whisper.

"Felicity!" Shibu cut in quickly. "You simply can't!" Shibu protested quietly but insistently.

"Then neither can the two of you, because if you leave here without me, I'll wake the King, and all of Bonta with him." Felicity replied sharply.

The thought of that flickered first across Shibu's eyes, and in the same moment across Shareef's eyes as well.

Felicity nodded quietly. "The three of us go, or none of us go." Felicity told the two brothers. "I'm sorry to be such a difficult sister, but this simply isn't negotiable." Felicity told them both firmly. "Now is my next breath going to be a whisper, or a shout?" Felicity wanted to know, looking directly into Shibu's pure blue eyes.

"I could put you to sleep, one way or another." Shibu ventured.

"Listen here, Mister blue light." Felicity retorted in exasperation. "How many healers do you have on this little expedition of yours?" Felicity wanted to know.

Shareef's hand dropped silently onto Shibu's shoulder.

"Perhaps Felicity is right, my brother. We go into harm's way, and is much as I would live and die to protect both of you, her skills might be useful. Remember, we must think about what comes tomorrow, as well as tonight." Shareef told Shibu in a quiet whisper.

Shibu's Ranger gaze flickered between Shareef beside him, and Felicity standing firmly, blocking the way before him.

"All right, Felicity." He said at last. "But once we get out there, I'll need you to do as you're told." Shibu whispered bluntly to her.

"Shareef knows the ways of ships and sailors. He knows their weaknesses." Shibu told her firmly. "From the moment we appear on their decks, Shareef will lead us, and any instructions he gives, both of us must obey, if we are to have any chance of success or survival." Shibu told Felicity plainly. "There is no time, and no place to act on emotions, only on instincts, and orders. Understood?" He wanted to know, looking at Felicity with a stern glance that would accept only one answer.

"Understood." Felicity replied simply. "What you say, is what I do, I promise you as your sister." Felicity added solemnly.

"Good enough." Shibu replied shortly. "We have no time for any more than that."

"Felicity?" Shibu asked after a moment in a much quieter and serious voice. "Can you-will you, fight if you have to?" Shibu asked. "Even if it means doing someone harm?"

"Yes, Shibu." Felicity replied simply, without any trace of her usual attitude. "I've never fought before, but no one anywhere, on sea or on land is going to hurt either of you while I can do anything about it." She told her brothers quietly, in a tone that revealed more of her true self then made her comfortable or certain.

"Felicity?" Shareef said gently."

"Yes, brother Shareef?"

"Courage." Replied Shareef, his tone serious and quiet, which matched Felicity's voice.

"Hey!" Felicity interjected in a forced whisper as she saw the small chest of sleeping potions sitting on Shibu's workbench. "You two had planned to go on deck and fight, hadn't you?" Felicity's whispered question was also tinged with a tone of wonder and discovery.

"Yes." Whispered Shareef by way of simple reply.

"In that case, let me take a few of these, and give you two the advantage of an aerial attack." Felicity suggested, her voice rising slightly with a wonderful idea.

Shibu and Shareef exchanged glances, and bright but silent smiles, as the two of them understood what Felicity meant to do when the three of them reached the pirate fleet!

There was in fact a regular issue uniform for the Rangers. But from the first day of his training, Cici had understood that requiring Shibu to wear it would be like forcing an Iop to walk across the bridge made of oiled glass. Instead, she had gotten a special dispensation for Shibu who was allowed to keep his normal set of light and airy silks.

Now as the trio stood together in the pantry, trying to make space for every sleeping potion they could carry, Shibu suddenly regretted not wearing the Rangers multi-pocketed vest.

Just steps away from him, Shareef, who was wearing Shibu's extra set of silks had the same problem. Eliotropes fought and moved best with their hands empty, just like their pockets. There were two simple pockets woven into each of the silken wraps that protected Shibu and Shareef from the waist down. Each pocket could hold exactly one potion, without the risk of dropping more as they moved.

Felicity watched her brothers with a wry smile, as the two of them attempted to work out the problem, tucking potion vials into their belts, and into the silken shirts, where no pockets existed, only to have them slip out and fall whenever they moved.  
Felicity gave them a half a minute to enjoy herself, and then she stepped in between them.

Felicity didn't even risk a whisper. She simply put a pair of raised hands between the brothers, making enough space between them so that she could walk over to Shibu's workbench and pick up the small wooden box which held a dozen bottles of Shibu's own potion, called the mists of sleep.

Felicity picked up the box of potions, and whispered something soft in language that Shibu had never heard before. The box seem to shrink instantly to the size of a sugar cube, one that Felicity picked up casually between finger and thumb, and dropped it casually into the belt pouch that she always wore with her medical uniform.

As Shibu and Shareef exchanged surprised and happy glances, Felicity smiled sweetly at both the brothers, and whispered one single word.

"Amateurs!" She said distinctly but quietly, and then she stood aside, waiting for the brothers to finish their preparations.

In just a moment the trio nodded and mutual readiness one to the other, and quietly, with a Ranger's trained step, Shibu led them around the corner of the pantry, through the shared bathroom, to the far side of the tower, just below the high up window of Felice's balcony.

It was here where Felicity stopped, gauging the height between their window exit, and the floor of the great stone tower where they stood together.

Felicity was a flyer, so the high window was no more problem for her than it was for Felice. But she looked at her brothers with a momentary sense of consternation.

"Do you Ranger guys climb up there, or something?" Felicity asked Shibu, trying to be as quiet as she could.

This time, it was Shibu's turn to smile. "Or something!" Shibu replied in a frustrating and cryptic whisper. "Shareef, you're up!" Shibu exclaimed in a soft whisper.

Shareef nodded.

Shibu reached out and grabbed Felicity tightly around the waist. While he held her, Shareef cast the portal into which all three of them tumbled before Felicity could think another word, let alone say one!

A moment later, they were standing on the outside of the tower, on the small but pleasant triangular balcony that was Felice's favorite spot.

"How-?" Felicity began to ask, but never had a chance to finish, as Shareef's next pair of portals swept the trio up to the very top of the tower, where they would have line of sight far out to sea, and a good view of the approaching black fleet.

As the three of them swept silently out onto the platform set into the top of the tower, Felice finally had a chance to draw a full breath!

"Ask a silly question!" Felicity began to say.

"No time now, explain later." Shibu whispered directly into her ear. "Ready? Shibu asked, releasing his gentle but firm grip around her waist. Before he let her go, Shibu turned Felicity gently in his hands, so that the young Enripsa could see a string of what seemed to be colored lights where the sky met the sea, far out onto the water.

"Mendoza's fleet." Shibu whispered. "Can you go that far, or will you need help?" Shibu followed quickly, knowing that time was not their friend.

Felicity forgot for a moment how entirely comfortable she was so close to Shibu. She forced herself to clear her mind, and gauge the distance far out to sea.

"Yes, Shibu, I'll be all right. The wind is with us, and still against Mendoza, but it will change at dawn." Felicity warned quietly but simply, so both of her brothers could hear and understand what she said.

"Then we go now." Shareef replied keeping his words short and urgent.

"It's still the dogs watch. Very few men on deck, most of them below sleeping." Shareef told his brother and sister.

"Including Mendoza, if we're lucky." Shibu observed quietly.  
Shibu kissed Felicity very softly on one cheek, releasing her from his grasp at last.

"We'll have to portal jump from here out to the fleet, Sis. I'll let you chart your own course, based on the winds." Shibu told her quietly.

Felicity was so surprised at Shibu's soft kiss that she could barely nod her head in response. Twice in as many minutes, she found herself pushing hard to clear her mind and concentrate on the task in front of them all, which lay far out to sea.

"All right, Shibu. What will the signal be, for me to start dropping the potions?" Felicity asked, calmly and sensibly.

"Stay up high as you can, and watch for fire in their sails. Then, when they come on deck, swoop in low and fast, and drop the potion so the wind across the deck takes it away from us, and towards them." Shibu explained quickly, using language that a flyer could understand.

"Shibu? Shareef?" Felicity answered in a still and gentle whisper.  
When both of her brothers turned from the view out to see to face their sister, Felicity kissed them both quickly on the nose, and as she took off herself into the night she whispered one word back to them both.

"Courage."


	39. The Battle of Black and Blue

As the trio soared upward and outward through the cool nighttime air, both Shareef and Felicity found themselves watching Shibu, not just for leadership, but for lessons in the Eliotrope manner of flight.   
As Shibu sprang forward in midair, one hand was always stretched out, to open the next portal upward or outward through which he could jump. Shareef learned by example how to control not only his direction, but his speed, for that increased if the portals were cast closer together and at a quicker pace.

Shibu made the entire process seem entirely effortless, remembering the animated frescoes etched on the blue walls of the catacombs.

His mind was not on soaring, nor height, nor speed. That was pure reflex. His higher mind was focusing more and more on exactly what their plan would be in two minutes time, when the trio arrived over Mendoza's fleet.

There was just one more thing to do before that.

Felicity had taken her station between the pair of her portal hopping brothers, her wings humming as they beat the air keeping pace with them. As he popped through his next portal, Shibu was actually able to turn in space as he soared along, and looked directly at Felicity.

"Just so you know Sis." Shibu said casually. "No one in Bonta knows that we can do this, or how." Shibu said in a serious whisper.  
"Please consider it a family secret, as not even his Majesty knows yet all of what Shibu and I can do." Said Shareef from the other side, following on his brother's words. 

"Watching the two of you, I can understand that." Felicity replied amiably. "If most Bontarian's saw this little aerial display, I think they might be more afraid of you two than they might be of Mendoza and his goons." Felicity observed quietly. "I swear an Enripsa that your secret is safe with me, my brothers." Felicity answered at last with a touch of sentiment that warmed the cool night air around the three of them, as Mendoza's fleet came into clearer sight, now only the throw of a potion bottle away.

The trio of brothers and sister looked quietly at one another, the only thing speaking for that moment was their eyes, as the trio realized that the time for talking was done, and the battle had begun.

Thanks to the trajectory which Shibu had set, the trio found themselves at the top of a high arc above the ships below them. Now Mendoza's fleet stood out hard against the blue sea, and the lantern lit forms of his ships could be counted and seen.

The first and most obvious vessel was a great, hulking galleon, made of oak, and everything from the water line to her decks was as black as charcoal, even her masts, and her top sails were the same black, ominous and magical as they seem to disappear against the night sky itself.

Less than half a league behind the Black Swan, Mendoza's flagship was followed by six other ships, spaced in three pairs of two. The first rank of three ships seem to be tied at anchor, until the eyes traced the heavy ropes which led aft from the first of the three ships, to the ship directly behind it. Thus each of the three vessels was towing another, under straining masts, laid on with every yard of sail that they could carry. And as Felicity looked down at them, seven ships in all, the sails lay flat against the masts and yard arms, without so much as a puff of breeze to fill them, and move the dark assembly of ships toward Bonta. She also noticed that the ships decks for the six ships following behind were absolutely empty!

Felicity allowed herself a quick snap roll of joy, as she tucked herself into the direction of the wind, as it would blow across the decks of the ships below. But as there was no wind on the flat sea as there was at altitude, Felicity found herself with all the speed she would need as she reached into her belt pouch, and took one vial of sleeping potion in each hand. Free of their magically miniaturized box, the pink colored bottles instantly enlarged to their full size. Felicity held them close to her body, tucking herself tight as another flicker of her wings propelled her more quickly toward the first pair of joined ships directly below her.

Felicity stilled the motion of her wings as she fell with the dying wind down the length of the decks of both ships. As she flashed by the crows nest in absolute silence, she was surprised, and just a touch relieved to see a sailor sprawled out in the crows nest still nursing a nearly empty brown bottle.

Before his bleary eyes could focus on her, she was gone, swooping at mast height among the ropes and sails of the heavily laden supply ship. The overloaded cargo vessel rode so low in the water that without wind and the effort of her lead ship, she could make no headway.

Dropping the first vial of sleeping potion exactly in the center of her deck caused a pink mist to be born amid the shards of shattering thin glass. The dense rosy cloud rolled along the main deck, swirled for a moment over the quarter deck before finding a path in the air which drew the pink mist below decks. As she looked forward again, the same point was below her on the first of the three lead ships, and Felicity let the second vial go, and as she flew up and away quickly, seeking the safety of altitude, she heard the vial splinter just at the base of the ships mainmast!

As she pulled upward as quickly as she could, fighting for altitude to avoid being seen, she passed between the brothers once more, and altitude as well as liquor made it safe for the trio to speak in whispers again.

"There's no one at all visible on deck in the last three ships in each column." Felicity told Shibu in a quick whisper. As she actually managed to hover in midair as Shibu and Shareef maintained their altitude by casting linked portals back and forth, and jumping silently between them. For the moment, the passage allowed them to cheat gravity, just long enough for the two of them to nod at their sister, before the pair of brothers dropped toward the supply ship, which was the last one in the port column aft.

"Set the sails on fire!" Shibu told Shareef quickly. He set the example, by pointing his full palm downward at the ship below, and shooting a pure blue beam of wakfu energy directly at the yards of limp sailcloth.

As the pair dropped toward the deck through successive pairs of portals to slow their descent, the night air above the fleet was lit with fire that seem to draw itself downward among the ropes and yard arms like a claw made of fire.  
Shareef watched, and then with a touch of regret, copied Shibu's attack.

There was nothing more terrible than fire aboard a ship at sea, and as Shibu and Shareef plunged the last few yards toward the quiet touchdown on her foredeck, the topsail, and in a moment, the mainsail on the supply ship was a terrible sheet of flame! It seemed to lash downward toward the deck, and the sails lower down, looking for fuel, which it found in yards of cloth, and mile after mile of heavy, dry hawser.

Almost as soon as the pair of brothers touched the foredeck of the first of the supply ships, it took no great seamanship to understand that within the next minute, perhaps two at most, the vessel on which they now stood would be an inferno of seagoing fire.

There was no sight of anyone on deck. Only stacked barrels and chests, taking up every inch of the main deck, and even crowding around the quarter deck and the wheel, which was lashed tight with a long piece of heavy leather strap.

Shareef looked around quickly, using not only the experienced vision of a seaman, but also casting his vision through the blue light of Wakfu.

Instantly, all of the ships decks became almost translucent, and Shareef could both see and sense all the way down from the main deck, to her keel. Dense stacks of cargo, including cannon met his eyes, but there was no sign of life below decks.

"Cargo only." Shareef told Shibu quickly. No crew except in the crows nest.

Shibu looked up quickly, as the ship superstructure was engulfed in fire!

"Whoops!" He said, and just as quickly disappeared into another portal that was cast high up into the air over the burning sails, and towards the crows nest!

Shibu soared upward, quickly coming to rest in the crows nest, as the fire swept closer still.

He looked down to see the sprawled out figure of a middle-aged slightly overweight sailor nursing an empty brown bottle.

He focused for a moment, collected the unconscious drunk in his arms, and with a quick tossing motion, Shibu heaved the man out of the crows nest, and downward, toward the sea!

Standing on the foredeck, Shareef saw the body fall from the crows nest, and created another portal below it so that the falling body would not smash into the brick hard sea, but drop into the water with a softer splash. Then Shareef's eyes darted back to the crows nest, as the superstructure, and the crows nest of the ship was swept over by a vicious fang of flame!

For just a moment, Shareef was more worried than he had ever been in his life, until a moment later, when another portal appeared beside him on the foredeck, and Shibu drop through it, to stand at Shareef's side.

"We have done our work almost too well, brother Shibu. This ship and her cargo are lost. Let us go before we join it!" Shareef advised quickly and quietly.

Shibu nodded with satisfaction. "One down, two to go." He said quietly. "Without these supplies, Mendoza cannot maintain a siege." Shibu explained quickly. "Fire the other two supply ships, and Mendoza has only what he has aboard the Black Swan for those who would lay siege to Bonta."

Shibu was about to cast an escape portal for both of them, when there rose from the second ship in the line, the hysterical human voice of a man shouting the most ominous word that is sailor could hear at sea.

"Fire!" The voice shouted across the water, and across the other group, now become five ships, and one flaming torch sailing on the water.

Shibu didn't hesitate. This time, his strong arm shot skyward, creating a portal as high into the sky as he could. Shareef created another for himself and his brother at the deck level, as sheets of flame seemed to catapult across the deck toward them! The brothers waited together until the last possible moment to dive through the portal on deck, and both were catapulted high into the air as the ship below them seemed to erupt like a seagoing volcano!

"That's the powder for those cannons, most likely." Shareef said to Shibu, as Shibu directed another portal, this time toward the second of the three supply vessels, this one from which the cry of warning had come.

"Got to keep him quiet!" Shibu replied shortly.

Shareef understood, and as the two brothers slid across the sky through the portal which took them closer to the ship, Shareef caught sight of a loan figure standing by the after rail, looking aft, and to starboard, as the first supply ship exploded, and burned quickly down to her water line.

Shareef put out his hand, and the same blue beam which had fired the sails of the first supply ship shot toward the seaman standing at the rail, the light from the explosion making his terrified expression visible, in a suddenly bright night sky.

Like his brother, Shareef could never bear the thought of using Wakfu to harm anyone, or any other living thing. He wanted only to scare the swab, and quiet him at the same time. Shareef's blue warning blast worked to perfection, as the teerified sailor jumped so high to avoid another bright blue blast, that he dived right over the high railing on the aft end of the ship, and directly into the sea!

"Well done, brother!" Shibu complemented as the pair sped through the next pair of portals which took them toward the next supply ship, and higher into the sky above her, where Shareef and Shibu could see Felicity orbiting her crows nest, doing duty as an aerial look out for the team.

This time, as Shibu and Shareef found themselves lofting high up over an empty crows nest, Shibu decided to stay in the air, as he used both hands to cut loose another blue blast that lit up the night air with an intense blue fire that changed color to a deep red as it began to gnaw on the superstructure of the second ship.

"No need us going down there." Felicity told both of her brothers. I think the only one on board was the guy who got his britches warmed!" Felicity observed with a slight giggle.

Shibu threw another portal higher yet into the night sky, and the fire from Mendoza's second supply ship looked like an oddly flickering candle, as the ocean became farther away, safely beyond the range of Shibu's main worry, Mendoza's Black Swan.

"All right, there's still one more ship to go." Shibu told Shareef and Felicity shortly. "But this time, Mendoza and his crew will know we're coming." Shibu continued. "Are you with me?" Shibu asked his brother and his sister.

"Now that is a silly question, if ever I've heard one!" Snapped Felicity, with the tone of her short temper showing like the glow of the fire from the ships below.

"Three of us, and three ships, for Bonta, our loved ones, and for His Majesty!" Shareef replied, as the trio slid through another sky bound pair of portals. But these two put them on a different course, so that the trio could attack the last supply ship in the now short row at the rear, from a different direction.

Shibu replied not with quiet word this time, but with a piercing and powerful shout that could be heard over the sound of the crackling flames spreading across the water below.

"For Bonta!" Shibu shouted at the top of his lungs, this time as the three of them slipped through another portal, diving faster than any eye could follow at the last of Mendoza's supply ships!


	40. Collateral Damage

The trio seem to blink into reality hovering together for a moment just above the last supply ships starboard rail, before putting one foot forward each, stepping onto the rail itself and down onto the deck, which matched the two before it. Packing cases, barrels almost beyond number, and crates of every shape and size imaginable were stacked almost too high, on her heavily laden top deck. So dense was the cargo, and so close the packing that from the point where the trio stood on deck, they had no sight of the quarter deck, nor of the ship's wheel, and the main passageway which would lead below decks.  
Shibu wasted not a moment, nor a motion, as he raised both hands, and sent a pair of what were actually blue lightning bolts into the fore mast, and all the way up to her loose hanging topsail.

To his surprise, and shock, as the sails up above caught fire, there was also a horrendous creaking sound much closer to the deck, and to the three of them.

The fore mast, as all the others, was jacketed with a copper sheet, around both the bottom of the mast and to the point where it was joined to the main deck itself. Shibu watched in absolute horror as the fore mast splintered just above where the copper jacket stopped, and the thick wood of the mast itself began!

The deck beneath their feet seemed to tilt just for a moment, but when the mast broke with what seemed to be an explosion of splinters, the air itself was suddenly filled with scraps of burning sailcloth, and bits of rope, torn to bits which seem to fall like a rain of candles from the superstructure, as the yards of rope and rigging that linked the fore mast to the mainmast caught fire, and lost a momentary struggle to hold up the burning fore mast.

Standing on the foredeck, Shibu saw a group of four sailors, clad in the typical striped shirt, and short pants of the average journeyman mariner.

The four men were doomed. The falling mast and the rain of fire from above would make them burn just as brightly as the candles made from the falling pieces of rope!

The sight of the four crewmen, and the terror of their fate, only fractions of a second away, froze Shibu in horror!

Instead, it was Shareef and Felicity who moved in tandem. Shareef cast a portal, directly in front of the group of trapped sailors. As soon as there was space for her to move, Felicity was through one end of the portal. By the time the second portal was cast, she was there to drop through the other end, this portal cast behind the group of sailors who stood on deck, as frozen in their moment of terror as Shibu himself.

Felicity did the only thing she could do. It was instinctual, strong, and done with a speed which she did not know until that moment that she possessed. Quite simply, Felicity put her hands flat on the back of the last sailor in the group of four, and pushed with all the strength she could summon. The four sailors tripped one over the next, and the entire group tumbled headlong into the portal, and away from the inferno just as the top yardarm on the form mast came crashing down on to the place where the portal had been only a heartbeat before!

Shareef moved, casting another portal behind a stout wall of large crates which sat close to the ship's rail, and would offer the group momentary protection from the flames. A moment later, four sailors, and one very scared Enripsa tumbled out of the portal, and were scattered across the deck closest to the starboard ship's rail like a handful of pearls strewn across the deck.

"Brother Shibu!" Shareef spoke up sharply. "Are you all right?"

Hearing Shareef's voice seem to break the spell, and Shibu nodded, pausing for a moment to dip his hand to the water, for the two at the rail were that close to the sea, and to slap a hand full of cold seawater across his own face.

He shook it off easily, and looked gratefully at his brother.

"Sorry, Shareef." Shibu said quietly. "For a moment, I was as scared as those sailors were, and suddenly I couldn't think or move, even though I wanted to." Shibu told his brother.

"As long as you are all right, my brother, explanations can wait." For now, let us finish this, and flee this place, before Mendoza has a chance to turn abeam, and turn his cannon on this ship, and us." Shareef told Shibu.

"Same idea." Shibu said shortly. "Fire the sails, and the rigging, and the ship, like the others will have nothing to do. The crews will have to cut their lines, and let go the ship's to drift." Shibu explained.

"Understood, my brother." Shareef explained in a firm but gentle voice. Then he reached over and clapped one arm around Shibu's broad shoulders. "The prize crew is safe. They can jump and swim." Shareef said. "Let us get away from here, and join them in safety, but above the water, rather than in it, for the ship is sinking. I can feel her list in my feet. We must go now, brother."

Shibu had recovered enough to scan the air around the rail with a short glance, and a turn of his head.

"Where's Felicity?" Shibu asked Shareef.

"On the deck, near the rail, behind those tall crates. Go and see to her, brother, while I lay us a blue path of escape from this place." Shareef answered.

"All right!" Shibu replied brightly, seeming to have recovered from his momentary lapse. Almost without thinking, he had cast two more portals, and was only one step distant from the ship's rail, and the row of sturdy crates behind which Felicity, and the rescued sailors lay scattered along the deck, pressed closely to the ship's rail.

Shibu could already read their life energy. The four sailors weren't hurt, but when Shibu's blue eyes fell gently upon Felicity, he could already see the flicker in her normally vibrant blue outline.

"You okay, sis?" Shibu asked quickly, kneeling at her side so as to protect her from the heat of the fire rapidly building on the deck. 

"We've got to go, now!" Shibu barked loudly at her.

"All right, all right!" Felicity whispered back at him breathlessly. "That big guy fell over me as we landed. Give me a chance to catch my breath, and the three of us can fly home."

"That's my sister!" Shibu encouraged gently, helping to sit Felicity up where she had fallen, and staying close to her as she collected herself and regained her wind. "I'm okay now, Shibu." Felicity said to him at last. "Now let's get out of here! The only thing I want to roast tonight is the gobby we had at dinner."

"Yes ma'am, right away ma'am!" Shibu replied with a touch of humor, as he swept Felicity up into his strong arms, and portaled back with her across the deck, to where Shareef was standing near the prow of the ship.

"This way, brother and sister!" Shareef called to the two of them as they appeared at his side. He had to speak louder now, for the fire was rapidly overtaking the ship, and had become a fearsome, howling beast in its own right, feeding with greed upon the crates and barrels stacked high on the flaming deck.

From the rail nearby, their rose a single horse cry, and then the sound of four quick splashes, as the members of the prize crew decided to swim rather than to burn and sink.

It reminded the three of them of what a fine idea this happened to be, and it was Shareef, who cast both the exit portal, and the one far up into the starry sky that let his brother and his sister join him in midair, before Shareef cast the first in a long line of portals grouped closely together, to take the trio back toward the beach, to safety.

But Felicity was slower now, in getting her wings to work, and she fell slightly behind the two portal borne brothers. They slowed down in midair, taking turns to cast the portals farther apart to slow the speed as the trio moved away from what was now a line of three ships towing a trio of blazing wrecks.

The pair of brothers had just locked arms with Felicity, and were bouncing from portal to alternately projected portal between the two of them when there was a short, sharp explosion from behind the trio.

At first, both brothers thought that it was more of the gunpowder aboard the supply ships. But a moment later, Felicity screamed, and dropped into Shibu's arms, this time entirely limp. Shibu could see and feel that it was serious, as he saw not only another blue flicker in Felicity's life force, but also the soft sticky red wetness between his fingers as he held her. One of Felicity's arms also fell to one side, away from where it had been around Shibu's neck.

"Go!" Shibu hollered at Shareef. "Felicity's been hit!"

The two brothers worked together, alternately casting close pairs of portals which doubled their speed for every pair which they passed through, until their motion could not be seen, except as a long, undulating blue streak sliding along like a colorful comet with the speed that made the air around it sizzle with noise, as well as a brilliant, but diminished blue light.

It became a matter of Shareef doing one of the things he did best, turning off his mind, and letting his reflexes take over his motion as well as his purpose.

He quickly discovered that even holding Felicity, who was now limp in his arms, he could cast portals alongside Shareef by doing no more than uncurling his finger, and willing the portal into existence before him. He began to imagine, and then to see a tunnel of blue light, made of portals cast so close together that there was now no space between them. As his perceptions of the space changed, so did the way that Shibu thought about movement, and his speed seemed to double, and then redouble again, almost faster than he could think about it.

Shareef found himself caught up in a bow wave of blue light more powerful but more gentle than any wave of Wakfu he had ever experienced from his brother. In what seemed only another instant of time, that which could be measured between heartbeats, the two of them were standing together on the beach at the base of their own tower.

This time, it was Shareef who was so overtaken that he needed to stand still, and finally sank slowly to his knees in the sand to allow both time as he knew it, and energy as he thought he knew it to catch up with him.

Shibu's first reflex, even before calling for help, was to hug Felicity's limp form closely and gently to him.

As he did so, there was another explosion, this one from the great wooden door of the tower being thrown wide open by an armored column of the Royal guard, led by the King, Master Chung, and thank heavens, by Felice, whose rapidly beating wings raised a sound like a bumblebee over the quickly moving procession.

"Guardsmen!" Felice barked harshly. See to Sirs Shibu and Shareef!" Felice ordered. "I shall attend Felicity to the hospital, to see she's given proper care!"

Felice stopped directly in front of her son, and without a word, held out a pair of empty arms toward Shibu and Felicity.  
Shibu knew better than to speak, his only action was to set Felicity as gently as glass into his mother's waiting arms.

Both of them were gone a moment later, the only sound betraying their presence was the humming buzz of Felice's wings.  
Once the ladies were safely away, the captain of the guard took charge.

"You two! Into line, forward March! By the personal order of his Majesty, King Louis of Bonta, whom you shall attend to hear of his Majesty's displeasure! March!" growled the captain of the guard, sounding suddenly cold and efficiently vicious.

Shibu and Shareef had no time to speak, but they did exchange glances, as the two of them were surrounded completely by the body of the entire Royal guard, and marched off at the quickstep, through the tower that they called home, and even more quickly back toward the castle along the familiar passage that led directly to the throne room.

Shibu's heart sank when he chanced to turn his head just for a moment, and he saw the long shadow of master Chung trailing the entire armored procession, The master sages head bowed low upon his chest, his silver eyes riveted to his feet as he shuffled along slowly behind them. On his face, the elder Sage bore the deepest expression of profound sadness that Shibu had ever seen from his Master.

Several of the longest minutes of Shibu's life passed as the troops made their way along the connecting tunnel, where Shibu had once practiced casting portals, and moved with the relentless marching pace toward the most important room in Bonta Castle.

This time when they arrived, there was no informal entry. Rather the great barred doors of the throne room itself were opened by two more companies of the Royal guards, allowing the first detachment to pass into the throne room with Shibu and Shareef before the other two companies work together to reset the massive steel beams which sealed the throne room of the kingdom of Bonta against attack.

The entourage did not stop.

This time, there were no courtly pleasantries, nor friendly eyes, nor any warm smiles to be seen.

Rather, Sir Shibu and his squire were marched across the great Crystal room, and onto the red runner which led directly to the throne. Here, where Shibu had stood to be ennobled, the guard divided in ranks, leaving three ranks of armored guards behind Shareef and Shibu, who made certain that the two of them finished their walk up to the edge of the runner, where the first three guards behind the two of them, made a point of making certain that the two of them drop to their knees before the throne of Bonta.  
Then the entire throne room fell completely silent before the captain of the guard spoke to the enrobed figure of King Louis, seated on the throne.

"By your royal command, noble sire." We present Sirs Shibu and Shareef."

"Very good Captain." The tone of the King's gratitude had a mean and icy growl about it as he spoke. "Now, leave us. Empty and seal this room. Let no one in all the kingdom enter here until we have given our leave for them to do so." King Louis ordered coldly.

"As you command, noble sire. So it shall be."

The three ranks of armored guards left behind Shibu and Shareef by the distance of a single step which allowed the two of them to kneel, peeled away quickly, and joined the other guards of the escort in a swift and certain march toward the great doors, which were unbarred once again, to permit the armored escort, all of the guards and the assembled nobles of Bonta inside the throne room to pass out of the Royal space in absolute silence. The doors closed again from the outside, and once more there was the slight, high-pitched grinding sound that went with the steel bars on the doors of the throne room being replaced by the guards outside.

Only when the throne room had fallen completely silent did King Louis of Bonta rise slowly from the Royal Throne to stand before Shibu and Shareef, where he cast down upon them a particularly harsh look of scorn and disappointment.

"If anything happens to Felicity." King Louis began in a short, clipped and angry tone. "There's a part of me that wants to boil the two of you in oil." The elderly monarch said scornfully.

How in the name of knighthood and chivalry could you ever let danger come to any female, let alone your own Sister?" King Louis fumed, as he marched back and forth in short steps in front of them, turning each time, with his hands kept tightly clasped behind him.

"How in the name of Bonta could the two of you ever conspire to do such a thing without asking not only the leave of the King, but of your friends, your colleagues, and the rest of your family?" King Louis wanted to know. The elderly monarch was near to shouting now, his voice higher and harsher than any time Shibu had ever heard it before.

"This is my kingdom. You two, and your family, are my people, and not like any other Bontarians. Do you not understand that you are our loved ones?" King Louis asked on a rising wave of temper. "How dare you in all the World of the Twelve, put yourselves and someone else into mortal danger, causing the King, the rest of your family, and all of Bonta, who knows of your scurrilous deeds, into moments of heartache, fear, and trembling such that Bonta, our great white city, as not known in fifty years?" King Louis asked.

"You two selfish children have no idea that the entire city has come to tears and grief believing the three of you dead? Do you not understand yet that we have spotters, with powerful telescopes which were trained upon the black fleet tonight? My spotters saw your every movement, and every action, as plainly as I see you now. Word of this spread over the entire Kingdom, and when the first ship exploded, so did my Bonta explode, into waves of grief, believing that you three had been killed. An entire Kingdom was made to weep for your selfish actions. It is not enough punishment that their city ought to be set upon by brigands, but in the midst of it all, the long-suffering people of my kingdom are made to believe that our white city has lost its finest heroes and heroine?"

King Louis finally paused to draw a deep breath.

Shibu dared to glance up from his knees, and look upon the King. Louis was practically as red as the first day Shibu had ever seen him, and given the elder monarch the healing potion which had saved his life.

King Louis spun around fast, and looked down at Shibu along a short arm which ended in an accusatory finger.

"Don't you dare look up at me, you instigator." King Louis of Bonta snapped harshly. "The way we feel at this moment, in spite of our deep love and caring for both of you, we are tempted to exile you both, so you may never look upon us again!" King Louis positively thundered at Shibu and Shareef.

The King drew another breath to continue his tirade, but before he could speak, another door, this one behind the throne, and leading to the Royal bedroom, opened, and Felice emerged, with Cici on her arm. Together, the Enripsa and the Ranger walked quietly toward the throne, standing just to one side, and one step in front of Shibu and Shareef who remained upon their knees, not daring to move so much as an eyelash as Felice and Cici curtsied, and then spoke to the King.

"Felicity will live, your Majesty." Felice said in the tone of the official court healer. Her shoulder is broken, and her arm was burned by some sort of small cannon blast." Felice summarized.

"We believe that it was a small swivel gun, your Majesty." Cici said, taking up her end of the conversation. "One loaded with small round shot fired from the Black Swan, as the three of them were moving away, after having set fire to the other ships."

Felice and Cici finished speaking, repeated their mutual curtsy, and disappeared with unnerving quickness back into the bedroom, through the door behind the throne. It closed once again, leaving King Louis of Bonta alone in his throne room with Shibu and Shareef.

"We certainly hope that you two fully realize that Felicity's salvation is also your own salvation." The king said sternly to the pair of brothers.

"The two of you present us with a royal problem." King Louis fumed.   
"We know not whether to treat you as heroes, for what you have done in spoiling the brigand raid on the one hand, or to allow you to feel the weight of our displeasure for causing so much grief among our justly worried citizens, and among those you love, and those who love you in turn." King Louis said at last, his anger becoming and exasperation visible in his posture, as well as in the rising tone of his voice.

"We have decided to leave you for the moment, to allow you to talk with your mother, and with your sisters. We appoint the three of them to be the arbiters of your punishment for your childish, foolhardy, and most heroic actions." King Louis of Bonta told both of them restoring both his regal distance, and a well fermented trace of his own worry and anger at the two brothers.

"When the family conference is finished, we shall make a speech to our people about the events of tonight, and the events which may come tomorrow." The king told them, before Louis made and icy cold point of turning his back on both of them and walking out of the throne room, into the bedroom and out of sight without another word passing between the three of them.

Shibu and Shareef kept their places for a moment, while the throne room fell deathly silent. Shareef slid a hand over to touch Shibu's hand gently as it rested upon his knees.

Shareef was surprised to discover that Shibu's hands were shaking!  
It took more courage than Shareef had tapped into all night long to look up and over at Shibu.

"Heroism is born and tested first in the soul, my brother. It can neither be given to you, nor taken away from you by anyone save yourself." Shareef counseled gently. 

"Come on now, let's go see how Felicity is getting along. Knowing sister as I do, there's probably a new Royal in the bedroom just about now!" Shareef added, dropping his voice to a soft whisper which only Shibu could hear!

That made Shibu smile, and Shareef felt the shiver fade from Shibu's hands, as Shareef took hold of both of them, and helped his brother to stand before the now empty royal throne.

The pair of brothers exchanged glances, and walked together in lockstep toward the bedroom door in back of the throne, only a few steps away.

Shareef did the light work of opening the well-balanced door, and holding it open, so that Shibu could enter the room first. Shareef was only a step behind for the space of the two steps that it took for the brothers to walk side-by-side again.

"Well it's about time you two showed up!" A slightly harsher than usual voice rebuked the brother sharply. "Royal audience or not, I expected to see you much sooner than this!"

Felicity's voice seemed to refill the reservoir of hope within the brothers, as both Shibu and Shareef made a dash across the wide room, which became a long jump aimed right at the Royal bed where Felicity lay, her right arm in a cast which brought her elbow even with her shoulder. So she was in absolutely no condition to shield herself from their loving onslaught, as both her brothers landed on the broad, soft feather bed, and bounced right up next to their sister, one brother on either side.

"Hiya, Sis!" Shibu piped up brightly as he rolled slightly on his side, to place himself within kissing range of Felicity's cheek and nose. "Sorry about the odd fashion accessory, but you know that it wasn't exactly our idea, was it?" Shibu asked gently.

"Well, I suppose not." Felicity replied after a mock serious moment of consideration. "Take a look at the metal tray on the night table." Felicity instructed quietly.

Shibu rolled over to grab it, thinking for just a moment that it might have been a small cup holder, made from thin metal. But this one rattled when Shibu picked it up and held it.

Confused, he emptied the contents of the metal cup into his hand. Three small lead balls, each about the size of a child's marble, collected in the center of his palm.

"Mom took those out of my shoulder." Felicity filled in quickly. "And I can promise you that she is angrier at Mendoza and his goons then we were when we left." Felicity told her brothers gently.

When his moment came, Shareef dipped in, and took one of the small musket balls from Shibu's palm.

For a moment, Felicity's olive skinned brother held the projectile between thumb and forefinger, looking at it with contempt, and trying to imagine the pain Felicity had endured because of it.

"Here, sister mine." Shareef told Felicity in a sympathetic tone. "Let me show you what I think of Captain Mendoza."

Both Felicity and Shibu watched Shareef's hand for a moment as it closed around the small lead ball.

Both brother and sister watched as Shareef's outstretched arm became noticeably thicker with cords of rope-like muscle that seem to infuse his arm with a new and surprising strength. As Shareef's fist tightened, applying the force of his strength, Shareef rolled his hand around at the wrist turning his upturned palm downward as the strength in his arm met the metal in his hand.  
Shareef concentrated, pouring strength on to the lead the same way Shibu's Forge poured heat on iron, and then Shareef's fingers opened again, as his fist hovered above Felicity's good hand.  
She let out a small squeal, as a small slightly curved bit of lead, re-forged into the shape of a falling leaf dropped into her hand. It was still wonderfully warm from the touch of Shareef's palm, and all the gentle power of his strength.

So much for Mendoza and his miscreants." Shareef said with resolution. "If the brigand and his minions dare show themselves here, I'll make the same shape of Mendoza's head before I'm done, King or no King!" Shareef told his brother and sister, venting a little bit of the same momentary fury that had combined with Shareef's deep but understated feline strength to reshape metal without the aid of external fire.

"Careful Shareef, voices and feelings have a tendency to carry around here." A familiar voice warned.

Shibu and Shareef both sat up in bed with Felicity in the center, in momentary shock and surprise as Felice stood quietly at the foot of the great Royal bed.

"Come to me, my sons!" Felice said to both of them, her throat closing fast around the words as she spoke them.

Shibu and Shareef held nothing back, as they held nothing back from Felicity a moment before. Both of them used the springy recoil of the vast bed to their advantage, and made a flying leap directly toward their mother.

But Shareef had thought better of the leap the moment after he'd made it, knowing that Felice had never had to hold anyone but Shibu before the next moment.

To his grand surprise and relief, Felice was able to catch them both in midair, spinning lightly as she did so to spend the energy of the leap, and spreading her wings so the three of them could enjoy a soft touch down on the multitude of thick tapestries which carpeted the floor of the Royal bedchamber.

"I'm so sorry, my boys." Felice explained to both of them speaking faster, her voice racing a flood of tears streaming down her cheeks.

"About what, Mom?" Shibu wanted to know, his voice suddenly sounding more serious and deeper as he spoke.

"I wanted to speak up for you in front of King Louis, but he insisted on strict etiquette when he saw both of you again. So there was nothing I could say." Felicity explained sorrowfully.

"I'm very sorry I disappointed- or we- disappointed King Louis. That wasn't what we set out to do, I promise." Shibu said somberly. "But what we did do, we had to do." He explained.

"Shibu was right in what he asked us to do." Shareef told Felice in a quiet voice. "If we had not gone to sea to fight him tonight, we would've fought his army on land tomorrow, which is now today, I suppose." Shareef added. "I have led my life at sea, and I know the sort of men who are coming, and who would've used those supplies to kill our people, and sack King Louis's beloved city and kingdom."

"For what it's worth, and as the one who paid the most in blood and pain for tonight, I agree with Shareef and Shibu." Felicity spoke up from the comfortable confines of her sumptuous bed. "I blackmailed both of them into taking me along, and if I had the same choice to make over again, I would blackmail them again, and go with them again, just the same way we did tonight. Although, in all honesty, I think I would skip the small cannon, all things being equal."

"I know that, my loves." Felicity said quietly but sternly to her children. “And so does King Louis." Felice replied.

"He does?" Shibu wanted to know, his confusion returning.

"Oh yes beloved, he does. Don't you ever repeat this, but you three should know that he was the one cheering the loudest for all three of you, as he was watching through one of the spotter's telescopes tonight." Felice told her family in no uncertain terms.

"Then why did he get so mad at us in front of everyone?" Shibu asked persistently.

"Because in front of everyone, King Louis must be King of Bonta, brother Shibu." Shareef interjected quietly.

His brother's consideration gave Shibu something to think about, which blunted part of his confusion, anger, and more than the slight touch of humiliation meted out to him by the King.

"The whole truth is that you two did positively the best and the most heroic thing any Bontarian can remember, my wonderful brilliant boys." Felice told both of her sons as they snuggled into her arms and relaxed.

"But you did it in entirely the wrong way." Felice continued. "Kings and courts are bound by tradition, and doing things in a certain way, even in times of great emergency."

"So that means as King of Bonta, King Louis almost had to be mad at us, because we went against his authority, is that right, mom?" Shibu asked finally.

"There's one of the two brightest boys in Bonta." A beaming and proud mother replied. "Shibu, you really are incredible when you listen to your heart." Felice told him.

"I'm so sorry, mom!" Shibu replied quietly. "I admire King Louis so much. I look on him almost like a grandfather, the same way I do with Master Chang." Shibu explained to his mother in a gentle and quiet voice, now completely free of anger or pain.

"That's my Shibu, my darling Shibu. One of my two darling bright heroes." Felice replied softly. "But you have to say those things to King Louis, the same way you said them to me. But you should say them in public, where the people can hear them, and so can the King of Bonta. You understand, I know you do, my sweet gallant Shibu." Felice told Shibu gently." You hurt his pride tonight, and along with him being so scared for the three of you after that first ship blew up, King Louis was just hurt, and for the first time in a long while, even though he could not show it, the King of Bonta was scared for people that he loves. And that's the worst kind of scared that you can be." Felice told her sons.

"I see." Said Shibu with a touch of regret after a moment of reflection. "We never had time to think about that. We had no time at all. When would be the best time to talk with the King?" Shibu asked quietly, with both his head and his eyes low, even as Felice held him lovingly.

"He understood what you were trying to do, from the very beginning. When those ships caught fire, It was he who quieted the fears of the people gathered in court as that first ship exploded, and everyone thought that the three of you might be, well, you know." Felice replied. "He said he would make a speech to the people of Bonta about tomorrow." Felice observed. "Well now, it is tomorrow. And I'll just bet that King Louis is glad he won't have to tell people you died, but I think he still mad because you didn't do things the right way for a king."

"We understand." Shareef replied from the other side of Shibu. "Now, the siege of Bonta is over. Mendoza cannot sustain all of his men with only four ships, filled as they are only with supplies for their crews." Shareef continued. "Now Mendoza knows that he must attack and capture the city, in order to have provisions for his crew, as well as money to buy their loyalty."

"So the danger isn't really over yet." Said Felicity quietly from her bedside. "There's still going to be an attack, there still going to be fighting, and bloodshed." Felicity observed with regret.

"That's right, my dear's." Felice admitted quietly. "But Louis told us that now we have the advantage, because we have the castle to defend us, and it is harder to capture a castle than to defend one." Felicity told her boys, and her newest daughter.

"I think I understand another reason why King Louis was so angry, and so sad tonight." Shibu observed quietly. "When he was younger, King Louis fought another castle siege. Bonta Castle was almost destroyed. But in the end, he won out, and became King rather than Prince Louis. Isn't that right, mom?" Shibu asked, knowing this part of Bonta's history very well, because Felice had met Louis at that time, and for the first time.

"That's exactly right, sweetheart. See?" Felice asked. "Not all of your history comes from books after all, some of it comes from the people you love, including King Louis, and me." Felice told Shibu, her gentle eyes glowing with pride as she kissed her son on the nose, and then held Shareef gently closer to her to do exactly the same to him in turn.

"And he loves you two boys, too." Felice went on. "Tonight, after that ship exploded, and we didn't see Felicity flying around or any more floating blue light, I saw King Louis turn as white as chalk." Felice told Shibu and Shareef in a quiet whisper. "I don't think he's been so very scared in his entire life as he was for the three of you tonight." Felice added even more quietly, in the tone of voice she always used when something was a family secret.

“Thanks, Mom! Both Shibu and Shareef said to Felice at the same time, as they kissed her on their Mother's red cheeks.

“It looks as if we have some Royal apologies to make.” Shibu said quietly. “Where is King Louis, Mom?”

“No, Dearest. Not now.” Felice answered. “He's far too busy, and a bit too proud. If he's the King Louis I know, He'll come and find you both when Bonta needs you the most. Then, all three of you will be ready to hear, and to listen.”

“Ok, Mom!” Shibu responded, as he snuggled into his mother's arms along with his brother, and all of them slid quietly into a warm and peaceful slumber alongside their new sister.


	41. Treachery Upon the Sands

Beaming gently from ear to ear, and being as quiet as a Ranger, Felice scooped up Shibu and Shareef, and quietly laid them together on the soft bed around their sister.

"Sleep well, my brave and beautiful family." Felice whispered softly to all of them before she kissed them all gently on cheek and nose, and let them sleep.

In spite of her glowing warmth, and pride in her sons, Felicity could not help but notice the worried expression which crossed Felice's cherubic face as she stood up from the bed again.

"What's the matter Felice?" Felicity asked quietly, so as not to wake her brothers.

"There's something else I didn't mention to the boys." Felice confessed quietly. "King Louis was also mad because he didn't want to goad Mendoza and his crew into attacking Bonta." Felice told Felicity gently.

"You might be right." Felicity whispered in reply. "If I were Mendoza just now, I would be hopping mad, and doing my very best to plot revenge." Felicity observed with sagacity.

"Exactly, Felicity." Felice answered quietly.

"That's part of the reason that Cici isn't here with us." Felice told the young Enripsa. "The Rangers, and the Cra detachment are out patrolling the coast, in case some of those pirates try to sneak ashore in the dark."

Felicity took a moment to think about that prospect. It made her shiver in such a way that she couldn't hide it from Felice's trained eyes.

"I may be selfish." Felice continued in the nearly silent whisper. "But I think the boys are going to need every minute of sleep they can get."

"Shibu is a Ranger, both at heart and by choice." Felicity observed. "He would want to be wherever Cici is. Maybe I shouldn't tell you this, but Shibu and Shareef have been training together for days in secret." Felicity confessed quietly. "I'm ashamed to say that I've been spying on them, but it's true." The younger Enripsa told her senior counterpart. "Shibu and Shareef work together like parts of a larger machine. I've never seen anything like it, not ever. The two of them have absolutely no fear of Mendoza or his crew. And that may not exactly be a good thing. A little fear makes you more cautious." Felicity observed quietly again.

This time, Felice nodded, without replying directly.

Instead, she fluttered gently over to Felicity, and kissed her softly on the forehead.

"Bless you darling, for thinking about my boys the way you do. I can't always be as close to them as I would like to be, especially with what is coming." Felice told Felicity directly. "From a mother's point of view, I think you deserve recognition as much as Shibu and Shareef."

"Thank you, Felice. You've just given me the most wonderful reward I could've asked for in all of Bonta. We have something in common you and I. We both love Shibu and Shareef." Felicity whispered as she reached up and hugged Felice, taking her into a warm embrace.

"I truly have a second daughter, as of now." Felice whispered to Felicity gently, as she returned the gentle hug, supplementing it with another soft kiss upon Felicity's nose, in keeping with the family tradition.

Yet, as the two separated, and their eyes fell upon Shibu and Shareef, Felice looked up and over, toward a small ventilation window set high into the ceiling of the bedchamber. The small triangular window was slowly filling with the first rays of dawn, and as Felice look back at her peacefully sleeping boys, her eyes matched Felicity's in that neither of them could hide the worry that increased with the first threads of daylight which tied time, and their hearts to a new day, and what that day would bring for their loved ones.

* * * *

The first wind of the morning rising off of the warming seawater seemed to do them no favors.

From the quarter deck of the Black Swan, Mendoza watched as the last of the firefighting crews working to save the last supply ship dove headlong into the water, and swam quickly back to their long boats, in order to steer clear of the flames.

"Damn and blast those Bontarian's!" Captain Mendoza hissed with a venomous fury. As he spoke, he quickly collapsed the spyglass which had brought him nothing but bad news along with the daylight, and thrust the small telescope back into the great hidden pocket inside his jacket.

"They'll pay double, and beg to do it before I let their city alone again!" Mendoza fumed menacingly. "We must find a way to hurt them as much as they have hurt us, Mister Gilpin."

Standing beside Mendoza at the rail, the spare figure of a buccaneer turned to his Captain. "Begging the captain's pardon, Sir." Mister Gilpin began formally, before his voice dropped to its usual nefarious tone. "After what I think we saw, I might know a way to do just that, Sir." The Black Swan's first officer suggested sounding secretive and guttural.

"And just what might you have in mind, Mister Gilpin?" Mendoza asked, drawn into the mood of secrecy and quiet by his own whisper.

"I've seen that there blue light before, on my old ship, sailing under Captain Soames." Gilpin explained, talking fast and keeping his word simple. "I don't know quite how it was done, but I think that light comes from one of my old shipmates. He was a pet of Captain Soames, the ship's mascot so to say. But this young lad had him some unusual abilities, most of which he tried to keep hidden away. I'll bet my sea chest that whatever curse this blue light is, that he's a part of it somehow." Mister Gilpin explained.

"What exactly are you suggesting, Mister Gilpin?" Mendoza asked straight out.

"Imagine for yourself what would happen if we had that there blue light to use against that white castle of theirs." Mister Gilpin replied in a sneaky tone. "They wouldn't stand any chance at all, if the shoe was on the other foot, so to say, Sir." Mister Gilpin began by way of answer. "Give me a small detail, and one of the long boats, if you please Sir. We'll go ashore, and try to find my old shipmate. And will fetch him back here one way or another, Sir. Then you might persuade him to see reason, and undergo a change of heart, him being a man of the sea like the two of us, Sir." Gilpin concluded with an evil snicker.

Mendoza turned the idea over in his mind. Clearly something or someone very powerful and very skilled had torched his plans for an assault on Bonta. Fixed as he was for the moment without supplies or money enough to go forward, Mendoza and his crew were stuck fast, with no alternative but to wait, which didn't suit Mendoza. Every moment that passed, he was feeding and paying for men  
who might turn on him if his grand plan failed. Mendoza needed to do something to prove both his leadership of his fleet, and control of the events, rather than allowing events to control him. At last, Mendoza cast an evil smile at Mister Gilpin.

"Very well, Mister Gilpin. Request approved." Captain Mendoza said in his best snake oil voice. "Will hoist the flag of truce for a parlay, and while we're talking, you and your party can leave the ship without being noticed. I think it's better that you swim for it on the way in, and better to steal a boat from one of the blockade ships on the way back. What say you, Mister Gilpin?" Mendoza asked at last.

Mister Gilpin's long, thin face, bearing his most unusual scar contorted into an ugly and crooked smile, filled with brown and black teeth.

"I say that with your permission Sir, before we swim for it, I'll prepare and hoist the flag of truce. Gilpin replied in a truly evil tone.

"And be sure certain that no matter what, those castle bound Bontarian's can see our colors, or we stand to be blown to bits, like the trio of driftwood out there on the flaming water!" Mendoza told his first mate.

Gilpin's smile held, as the buccaneer thought about finally gaining his long cherished revenge against Captain Soames' cabin boy and pet.

"Thankyee, Sir." Mister Gilpin replied smartly. "Should be ready to raise the flag of truce in about a quarter of an hour, Captain."

Mister Gilpin turned and skittered away to put his evil plan into practice.

Once he was alone on his quarter deck once again, Mendoza fished into the inside pocket of his jacket, retrieving and unfolding his spyglass, and pointing it once more at the imposing white castle which crowned the shore and the cliffs along the coast before him.  
He could still have Bonta, and what was more, he intended to take what was his, anyway he could do it. Even if it meant corrupting the law of the sea to accomplish his evil objectives.

* * *

King Louis paced slowly but relentlessly across the floor of the observation chamber built on top of the keep. The small structure use the great dome of the roof of the keep to good advantage. Stationed high up with a powerful telescope, the spotters, a pair of specially trained rangers could see far leagues out to sea, where their trained archer's eyes working enough to count the feathers on the seabirds now gathering where the sky met the sea in the growing light of dawn.

King Louis's innermost thoughts were not on the brigand ships which now grew slightly larger every hour that the morning tide had turned, now sweeping what was left of Mendoza's black fleet toward Bonta on a rising breeze of morning air, which blew gently toward the castle.  
Rather, King Louis found himself thinking more and more of Shibu and Shareef, rather than the looming danger imposed by the approaching buccaneers.

The monarch within Louis was completely untroubled by what his regal duties had forced him to do in reaction to an act of bravery that the elderly monarch knew in his heart was worthy of both song and story.  
The marvelous pair of brothers had taken action, and done something together that all of the city could see as a flickering candle flame of hope in the middle of a sea of crisis.

Perhaps he had been too distant and difficult with the two of them. In his own mind and in his own heart, Louis already saw Shibu as nothing less then an adopted grandson, and the addition of a brother to the family, especially a skilled mariner was a welcome joy to any Bontarian home, including the grandest home of them all, which Louis had watched Shibu defend before, both with his words, and even more swiftly with his resolute actions.

King Louis's small inner voice nagged him relentlessly with a whisper of doubt about the course of action he had chosen with Shibu and Shareef. Together, the brothers had shown themselves to be resourceful and resolute. Perhaps the two of them could be more of a solution than a problem.

The Royal train of thought was disrupted by a calm but urgent sounding voice which rose sharply from the spotter who kept his I glued to the eyepiece of the telescope.

"A sign of new activity aboard the lead ship, Sire." The spotter said, keeping his report short, accurate, and urgent all at the same time. "Their lead ship is making signal with flags, your Majesty." The spotter reported as he drew another breath.

"Can you read their flags?" King Louis asked quickly.

"Aye, Sire, I can. The flagship requests parlay, and the second hoist is a large flag of truce, set upon her mainmast." The spotter reported dutifully, without looking away from his station at the telescope eyepiece.

King Louis dropped all shades of regal distance, and walked a short way out of the small building that housed the spotter, and the telescope.

A few yards in back of the structure, at the very highest point of the great domed roof of the keep, there was a small chest, and beside it, the tallest and most easily seen flagpole in all of Bonta.

As soon as the King's presence was seen, another pair of Rangers, one standing on each side of the flagpole snapped into the neat salute. "Your order sire?" Both of them inquired at the same time, in one voice.

"Signal the flagship that we accept the offer of Truce for parlay." King Louis instructed simply.

"As you command, immediately sire!" The pair of rangers replied, as one of them opened the small chest next to the flagpole, and began passing a series of colored banners to his brother Ranger, who secured them quickly to the halyard rope, and sent a coded version of King Louis reply streaming colorfully to the top of the flagpole.

Half a minute later, there was a small but entirely audible detonation from one of the forward facing swivel guns attached to the flagship's rail. It was the first step in a ritual as clearly defined as being knighted.

The requesting party had acknowledged the state of truce with what amounted to small arms fire, but without ammunition, making signal as a peaceful sign of the beginning of the truce requested in the flag message.

Surely enough, over the next ten minutes, a single boat of unique size and style could be seen dropping way slowly from the rail of the great black ship, leaving the flotilla behind and moving slowly toward Bonta.

The small vessel was the captain's gig, a modified version of the common ships longboat, set with the crew of eight oarsmen and a Coxwain, along with the captain and his first officer.

The morning tide had just turned, and the onshore breeze had not freshened enough at this hour to move the boat without help from the oarsmen, even though the gig was equipped to raise sail rather than depend solely on the backs of her crew. After a half dozen pulled strokes took the small boat away from the flagship, each oarsmen lifted his oar, and a trim but proper sail slid down the gigs short mast, and the small boat began to make slow but steady progress toward the beach, where Mendoza had come ashore once before.

"They will come ashore in a bit more than an hour, sire." Said the spotter dryly as he stuck to his duty. "Your orders, my liege?”

"Dispatch an arrow to the master of the Cra detachment. Inform her of events regarding the truce, and bid her to survey the coast with the eyes of every hawk that she commands." King Louis ordered.

The Ranger who had set the flag hoist bowed deeply at the Royal order. "By your command, sire!"

King Louis watched with fascination as the young Ranger produced a small strip of parchment, and used what seemed to be a grain of charcoal to mark the parchment with an arcane set of symbols.

The young archer, barely older than Shibu himself took the strip of parchment, wound it gently around his pinky finger, there to stay for a moment as the archer drew an arrow from his quiver. He paused, to unscrew the tip of the unique arrow, and slip the coiled message from his pinky finger into the hollow arrowhead itself. It took him only a moment more to secure the cap on the arrow, and standing back only a step away from the very edge of the domed roof, he knocked the arrow, and held his bow of almost vertically into the night sky, as if attempting to shoot the moon rather than to send the message. But the arrow sailed away from his bow on a high arc, and at its highest point, the arrow itself became a brilliant orange streak of light which seem to twinkle like a star in the morning sky, and then completely vanish from sight.

Before the young archer, or his King, standing together on the roof of the keep could draw another breath between them, Cici sensed and saw a brilliant comet of familiar orange light fill her view of the predawn sky. Cici didn't stir so much as an eyelash has the message arrow seem to come down exactly 1 inch in front of the toe of her right hand boot, embedding itself firmly and forever in the massive log of wood upon which Cici sat as the dawn gathered light around her for the morning.

The arrow itself seem to unscrew from the log, the two parts of the arrowhead joined by a long curled strip of parchment bearing Ranger code symbols upon it.

The most casual glance delivered King Louis' warning to the commander of the Cra detachment without requiring Cici to move, or do anything else that might give away the detachments position in the deep forest only an arrow slight from the white city.

The code symbols written on the parchment strip lasted just long enough to be seen and read before they turned into fire which consumed the small strip of parchment, without damaging the body or hollow tip of the message arrow.

For a Ranger, it was as common a tool as pen and ink were to the schoolboy. But it also insured security and secrecy whenever the Rangers needed to move and act quickly.

As the first general puffs of morning breeze lifted up and scattered the fine gray ash that the parchment strip had become, Cici thought of another Ranger, one of only a few not in her patrol detachment this morning.

Cici was a Ranger. In fact, her command made her The Ranger. Every Cra in the city of Bonta had heard rumors of what had happened last evening in the royal court. The Rangers had heard of it practically before anyone else besides the King, Shibu, and Shareef.  
And this morning, for the first time among the many mornings which she could remember, Cici was worried more about Shibu than she was about Bonta. Cici knew better than anyone, with the possible exception of Felice, exactly what Shibu was capable of when he set his bright and singular mind on a fixed goal.

Flag of truce or not, Cici already knew something that not even the King of Bonta could command with all his royal prerogatives. Cici knew that wherever Mendoza was once he set the toe of his boot anywhere in Bonta, Shibu would be there, and Shareef too, standing right beside him.

And truce or not, Cici understood, as did her brothers, that in that moment a war of another sort would begin, under cover of the formalities of the parlay.

Cici braced herself. Because she was the first one in Bonta this very morning to understand that the battle between Bonta and the villainous Mendoza had begun in deadly earnest.


	42. Coastal Defense

Shareef stirred as he rolled over in bed to be closer to Shibu. A sensation he had never felt before trickled across his senses, as if some unseen prankster had suddenly decided to drip cold water on to his warm cheek.

He was instantly awake, and absolutely clear of mind. That momentary uneasy feeling made him cast a glance through the stone walls of the tower bedroom, and toward Felice's balcony beyond.

Since casting a portal required no motion that would disturb his family, thanks to Shibu's teaching, Shareef was able to portal both to the inside platform of the balcony window, and then beyond it, to the balcony outside, and onto the roof itself.

Shareef found his eyes inexorably drawn toward the horizon. The three supply ships were gone from sight, the bits of flotsam and jetsam that were there wreckage had already been swallowed up by a becalmed morning sea.

But it wasn't the ships, or the memory of the battle, nor its unseen consequences that occupied Shareef's uneasy mind. He could look toward the horizon now, and make out the familiar outline of the Black Swan, drawing ever nearer to Bonta on the freshening morning breeze.

As Shareef got his first good look at Mendoza's flagship, he felt his stomach become a hard knot, in the same way it had done before his brother and sister had joined him in the raid on the supply ships. 

But this time, Shareef sensed a new danger. Not one to Bonta, nor directly to his family sleeping peacefully within the tower. One glance at the massive black galleon inching toward Bonta across the sea filled Shareef with the same cold he had felt touches warm cheek a few minutes before.

He knew what it was. Or rather, who it was.

"Gilpin!" Shareef whispered gently against the morning breeze which wiped the sound of his whisper into a silence that would protect his family, at least for now.

Shareef stood still, and opened his senses, touching softly on those of the Great Cat who had filled Shareef's heart and soul.  
For a moment, Shareef saw not through the blue light of wakfu, but through the lemon yellow solar eyes of a Sand Cat.

Shareef no longer needed to see the trackless stretch of water which met the horizon. Instincts beyond his own gave his mind to know that somewhere within the site of his lemon yellow eyes, there was an enemy. An enemy drawing closer with every moment.

Linked as he was to the powerful feral cats basic instincts, Shareef could feel only one response, and think of only one action.

Instantly, the powerful feline who shared his very soul made them both ready to gather, and then to pounce.

But just as Shareef gave himself over completely to the feral impulse, he felt another closer warmer, and equally powerful energy cut across his feral senses.

"Shareef?" Asked a strong, familiar, and close voice.

But did not draw back, even as Shareef let out a feral growl, and turned on his brother as if to snap at him viciously.

But then, Shibu saw Shareef's hard and energetic lemon yellow eyes shift color through green, and back to blue that matched his own, before settling once more on the brilliant, pure green which was Shareef's normal vision.

"Easy, Ahki. I mean you no harm." Shibu whispered to his brother easily.

Shareef responded by doing something that Shibu had never felt before. His brother nuzzled gently at the firm hand dropped onto Shareef's shoulder, before Shareef stood up fully from his semi crouched position next to his brother.

"Trouble." It was the only word that Shareef ever needed to speak to have Shibu instantly ready to fight beside him against whatever may come.

"Enemy." Was the next word Shareef managed to speak in a somewhat vacant tone as he looked through Shibu, as much as at his brother.

"Let's go!" Shibu responded instantly, his own reflexes tensing very much like the great feline's own instinct inside of Shareef.

"No, brother." Shareef replied cryptically. "This fight is from my past. It must be mine alone. But this time, I walk not only with the spirit of my brother and my family, but the soul of the Sand Cat which is also a part of me." Shareef explained in few words.

"Shareef, Mendoza is coming. You know that. You feel the same way that I do. If we split up, we split our power, at the worst possible time." Shibu protested firmly but gently.

"Shibu, my magnificent brother." Shareef replied in an equally gentle whisper. "There is no one on any world, nor in any land whom I love and admire more than you. You too are part of my soul." Shareef continued. "But now, I must ask a boon from you drawn from that love and that trust. Please stay here, and protect Bonta." Shareef implored quietly. 

"The fight ahead for me will also weaken our enemy." Shareef explained patiently. "But this fight is a portion of my past, and if I am ever to have a new life, and to continue to love all of you the way I do at this moment, it is a fight that I, or perhaps I should say we, the sand cat and I, must face alone. I beg you with all my heart and with all the love in my soul, please brother Shibu. Now you must trust in us, for we fight as much for you all, as we do for ourselves."

Shibu looked deeply into Shareef's pure green eyes. There was a depth, and honesty, and a strength that Shibu had not seen in them until this moment.

"I love you too, brother. More than anything or anyone in this entire world." Shibu told Shareef gently, returning to his brother his portion of the love they shared.

"But Shareef?"

"Yes, my beloved Shibu?"

"Promise me you'll come home again. Sand Cat's promise?" Shibu asked quietly.

Shareef nodded gently, and paused just long enough to kiss his brother on both cheeks, and finally, directly on his nose, sealing the promise for which Shibu had asked.

"Sand Cats promise, beloved mine." Shareef replied. Then he took a step back, and moving only his fingers, in Shibu's style, Shareef cast a portal, hopped into it, and vanished into the gathering light of dawn.

Shibu found himself staring vacantly out to sea, with all the intensity and strength that his true nature could muster. Suddenly, Shibu felt completely alone for the first time in his life. It was a vacant, awful feeling, colder than the seawater, and colder still than all the ice he had ever seen in all the books he had ever read.

But Shibu found himself thinking only about Shareef, and the warmth of his love banished Shibu's chill instantly, replacing it instead with the fire and determination that came so naturally to Shibu.

For just a moment, Shibu thought about following, but then he thought better of it. Now more than anything, with the exception of Shibu's love, Shareef needed to be sustained by Shibu's trust as well.

It was only a few seconds before Shareef stood alone in a small corner of a rocky inlet. He had never been here before, but had seen a dozen places like it while sailing with Captain Soames.  
It was a secluded spot where the sandy beach gave way grudgingly to hard rocks and lashing seawater at the edge of the Bontarian coastline.

Shareef chanced a glance back and up, trying to orient himself using the castle as a sight reference.  
In a moment he knew he had chosen his spot perfectly, as the massive white castle which was the heart of Bonta was nowhere to be seen from this singular desolate spot.

If a long boat full of invaders wanted to come to Bonta, and not be seen by the Cra, or the castle lookouts, this was one of only four spots along the entire mapped coastline of Bonta where it could happen.

Shareef had picked the spot in particular because of the time, the tides, and something else that only a sailor would understand. There was still enough sand in this particular spot to make a smooth landing, rather than a rough one among the protruding rocks that fought the sea for possession of the coastline. It was the sort of spot Captain Soames would pick if he wanted to surprise someone. Both Shareef and Mister Gilpin had sailed under Captain Soames, and learned many of their lessons at the captain's elbow.

As soon as he knew the spot was right, Shareef did his level best to disappear into natural cover. He was close enough to the rocks into the water that the rising tide would eliminate any trace of his footsteps almost as soon as they were created. Shareef cast another portal, and found himself standing behind one of the largest boulders he could see anywhere along the stretch of coast. If he had taken the time to make the spot for himself, he could not have asked nature to do a better job. The spot was high up, and hidden. The morning light was still slightly dim, the interplay of the shadows giving Shareef another sort of cloak as he stood behind the rock in absolute silence, timing the crashing of the breakers, and as always, listening.

Time was as important to any sailor as blood was for life itself. 

Soames had always carried his familiar gold watch, but Shareef and the majority of the old crew never carried any sort of timepiece. When it came to keeping time on a ship at sea, it was better to count time by the beat then it was to keep track of minutes and seconds. So is he stood behind the rock, the sound of his own breathing hidden by the hissing flow of water over the rocks, Shareef took up a familiar rhythm in his mind. 

While it was considered among the sailors most mundane and monotonous tasks, Shareef found a sense of happiness and accomplishment in joining with his shipmates to haul the line. The task itself involved setting a rhythm, the took the place of the ticking watch, but allowed the men at work to keep accurate time of another sort. Hauling the line required coordination, shared strength, and cooperation. It was the sort of physical activity that Shareef enjoyed simply for burning off some of the nearly endless supply of raw energy which he seemed to possess, and at times, seemed to possess him in turn. 

In his mind, he could hear Soames himself calling the cadence, as a dozen of his crew, including Shareef who had happily scrambled up on deck to volunteer, grabbed hold of a single rope thicker in diameter than the torso of a man, and exerting themselves to a wrenching pull, always in time to the cadence set by the captain, or more likely by the officer of the deck.

The memory, and the action of it as it rolled through Shareef's mind brought an easy and familiar tension to the heavy muscles Shareef had developed clinging tenaciously to that hawser, and pulling so hard, to bear his share of the load, both with his heart, and with every bit of physical strength he could muster.

For Shareef, what seemed such soul wrenching work had been turned into good memories by the fullness of time. As he concentrated on the cadence, and the pull once again, Shareef felt his body take on a welcome muscular tension, complemented by the instincts of the powerful feline he now allowed to rise within him. The mighty spirit of the Sand Cat was just below the surface now, bringing his own felime power into the rising tension that Shareef welcomed as he mixed good memories with good purpose.

No sooner had Shareef opened himself to the presence and power of the sand cat then his ears picked up a low, muffled creaking sound which could not be dismissed as the hissing and spitting of the tide coming into the shoreline, across the sand.

Shareef felt his fists clench involuntarily as he heard another sound as familiar to any sailor as his own heartbeat. Amid the muffled creaking, Shareef could hear the unmistakable sound of water slapping hard against the hull of a boat!

As Shareef held his body still, turning only his head slightly to put the edge of one eye around the rock which was His Hiding Pl., Shareef saw the outline of the longboat, with wrapped oarlocks, and filled beyond the point of safety with almost a dozen shadowy figures.  
Shareef had to fight back a gasp, even against the sound of the hissing tide as he recognized the figure of the man at the tiller of the small boat.

Smaller than average, but stout, and perhaps a bit rounder than an old sea dog needed to be. Matched with a long face and a thin nose crossed by a familiar scar, Mister Gilpin was almost exactly the same as Shibu remembered him on the day before the storm.  
Shareef found himself suddenly fighting back a storm of a different type. He felt the power of the sand cat sweep up and over him, like the crashing waves of the incoming tide.

Part of Shareef's soul whispered to him that in the face of an enemy, a sand cat might be still, and may be silent, but only in waiting for the correct moment to strike.

The way the buccaneers set crouched in the boat, Shareef knew he would be at a disadvantage, as Gilpin would be the last man off the boat, as the other dozen worked to haul the longboat securely up on to the very last spot of sandy beach along the coastline.  
This meant that Shareef might have to go through a dozen men to get to Gilpin.

Thirteen to one.

Good odds for any Sand Cat! And the element of surprise still went to Shareef.

In former days, he might have been accommodating enough to have used the big rock as a platform, and simply dived into the middle of them, scratching, clawing, and fighting them all at once, in the best way he could manage. But time and knowledge had changed him. The sand cat had changed him. And most important, in that moment, Shibu had changed him. Shareef was no longer a half coordinated dodger who had used ancient arts of self-defense to overcome a shipmate drunk with power.

Now, he was in Eliotrope, and where those skills met the strength of the sand cat, and his own skill in the martial arts, someone far different, and far more deadly rose up out of Shareef's feral heart and mind.

Instinct and strength flowed together, Shareef braced against the huge rock in front of him, as he tapped into the strength of the Sand Cat to give the boulder in front of him a mighty heave, and send it rolling downward, over the course coastline rocks, and directly onto, and into the longboat!

The hissing roar of the rising surf hid the sound of the fracturing rock from the group on the beach below until the great Boulder fell into their midst. A great roaring crash, more like a sand cats growl than the hissing of the tide seemed to roll through and over the group of men and their suddenly too small boat!

The boat itself was simply chewed up and spat out like driftwood under the power of the rolling rock, and before the boulder blasted itself a new place to rest on the edge of the surf, the boat itself was gone, and better than half the men in it, including Gilpin, were washing around in the hissing surf, suddenly struggling for life against the sea which growled at them louder than Shareef ever could. 

Then, Shareef's lemon yellow eyes narrowed, focusing on one target in particular, thrashing around, and almost helpless in the churning surf.

The instinct to pounce was unbelievably powerful. Shareef could feel the Sand Cat in him standing among them in the churning water, using his great, powerful fangs to simply rip open throats, and fast strikes of massive paws to simply crush the intruders like broken dolls.

But somehow, and from somewhere he had never felt before, Shareef found an even greater strength to blend with those of the mighty sand cat. Shareef waited for his moment, allowing the sea and surprise to be his full and powerful allies, just as the sand cat within him would be his ally in only a moment more of time.

The tide crashed over the rocks again, the force of the wave more like a cannon shot, dashing the bodies in the surf remorselessly against the hard, sharp stones of the coastline.

NOW!

Shareef leapt down from his rocky perch with the sinuous and powerful grace of the sand cat to help him move. Before the form of the previous wave had receded back to the tide line, Shareef was standing on the beach itself even and level with the men being chewed up by the rocks and the relentless sea.  
But rather than wadeing to them, and fighting as they would, Shareef began testing portals!

But something was different this time as well. He was casting perfect pairs of them, from two outstretched hands. The strong circles a vivid blue light seemed to open drains in space and time, each one swallowing up the figure of a man thrashing in the surf along with a small quantity of water before the first of the pair closed, and the second of the pair opened a few feet up in midair just above the tide line over the beach! As the second portal opened, the figure the sailor spilled out into midair, tumbling head over heels to a rough and sandy crash of a landing on the beach!

Two portals by the pair, and then one at a time, nine out of what had been a Baker's dozen of man thudded into dull piles along the beach, each partially covered by a spray of sand.

Shareef was counting all along. Keeping time, and counting cadence, until there was only one man more unaccounted for. 

Shareef concentrated on this last pair of portals, scooping up the last of the figures he could make out in the dawn light, and casting him to a short uncontrolled fall onto the softer and only slightly more forgiving sand of the tide line.

Shareef lowered his hands, transforming them into clenched fists as Mister Gilpin struggled, and then finally managed to stand from where he had fallen in the sand. He went to his knees first, coughing up a mixture of wet sand, surf foam, salt water and bile.

Shareef waited, allowing Mister Gilpin to collect himself before Shareef dropped out of another portal to stand up in front of Gilpin, looking down on his former shipmate with hard, predatory lemon yellow eyes.

Gilpin looked up from his puddle of seawater and vomit, and as his eyes filled with the figure of Shareef, his face and body overflowed with a powerful primal instinct.

Panic.

Mister Gilpin screamed. But only one other pair of ears would hear his cry.


	43. Sailor's Quarrel

"You!" Gilpin hissed almost too quietly once the scream had taken most of the air from his lungs.

Perhaps foolishly, Shareef allowed him one more breath before he spoke to Gilpin.

"Get up, on your feet." Shareef said in a voice as cold and inhospitable as the seawater Gilpin had been drowning in a moment before.

"So it's to be that way, is it?" Gilpin asked, his voice gradually changing from fear to threat. "Still got it out for your old shipmate, have ye?" Gilpin continued. "And here I thought we were mates, ye and I."

"Never!" Shareef growled.

Gilpin slowed down for a split second as he got to one knee. Just long enough to sweep one of his free hands in the curving circle along the wet sand, and throw a spray of it directly at Shareef, along with a vicious growl from the former first mate!

Shareef's reflexes were ready, even as his mind was caught by surprise. He jumped back and away, moving to one side by half a step, so he was out of the way of the headlong rush that followed Mister Gilpin's trick.

But by the time the man realized that he'd been outmaneuvered, he was already flying directly in front of Shareef, with his back exposed as he sailed through the air.

Shareef let Gilpin sail almost completely by, headed for an off balanced fall into more wet sand. But as Gilpin tumbled by, Shareef reached out with a foot, and kicked Gilpin hard and fast in his exposed backside.

It was enough to trip Gilpin into an uncontrolled roll that made him trip over his own feet, and land a few yards away, on his back, face up in the sand, with the very edge of the cold seawater nipping at him as he lay still for a moment.

Shareef took another step back, out of Gilpin's reach, and specifically cast a portal to take him to a spot where he could look down on Gilpin's face, but still be beyond his reach as the man lay spread eagle on the sand.

"Temper temper!" Shareef said with a calm as cold as the seawater in his voice. "You're going to hurt yourself." Shareef observed casually.

Shareef surprised Gilpin by offering him a hand, and easily pulling Gilpin to his feet, as if the heavier man weighed no more than a sack of grain.

Gilpin took advantage of the gesture to swing a vicious roundhouse punch, aimed at the side of Shareef's head!

Shareef ducked smoothly, allowing the momentum of the off-balance punch to do his work for him. The punch took Gilpin farther off-balance, and from there Shareef knocked a short, sharp, shove into Gilpin's wide open torso, right about where Shareef reckoned Gilpin's liver to be.

As the blow struck home, there was a short, low growl from Shareef, and the force of it added to the power of the blow that seem to fold Gilpin in half at the waist, made him stop short, and sent the man collapsing to the sand once more.

"I could've let you die on the rocks." Shareef told Gilpin plainly. "Maybe I should've let you drown at sea, or in the sea."

Gilpin's reply from his hands and knees was to lash out again. This time for Shareef's feet and ankles.

Shareef instantly went up on his toes, calling on his Ranger training to take advantage of the next opening Gilpin had given him.  
Shareef danced around to the side, putting a half twist in his body that helped propel a soft side kick that was little more than a tap, compared to the vicious force he might've put behind a full-fledged strike.

Instead, Gilpin was sent rolling helplessly across the sand again.  
Shareef followed, at a safe distance, before closing by the half step, to look down once more into Gilpin's dazed and angry eyes.

"I can keep this up longer than you can." Shareef told him again, with the same icy cold tone in his voice. "You're here not because of anything you tried to do to me, but because I need a messenger."

"Mess-enger?" Gilpin stammered as he lay once more spread out on the wet and soggy sands, this time a step closer to the water than before.

"Tell Mendoza to give up. Take his fleet, what is left of it, his men, and sail away." Shareef instructed.

It took Gilpin's small mind a moment to fully absorb Shareef's demands. Laying water soaked and half drowned on the Bontarian beach, the buccaneer had to laugh right out loud at the young upstart, whose face hovered in the morning light just beyond his reach.

"In your dreams, you vicious little brat!" Gilpin hissed with all the venom he could muster.

"No, Gilpin. This is no dream, I could show you nightmares beyond your understanding. And if Mendoza and his crew attack Bonta, I promise every last one of them a lifetime supply of nightmares."

"Go to hell, whoever, and whatever you may be!" The man hissed by way of reply. "It's you will have nightmares, when your body is hanging on the end of a cutlass, driven right through your spine!"

"Ouch!" Exclaimed Shareef softly. "That does sound quite unpleasant, and so do you. Perhaps you need another lesson in proper manners."  
Shareef surmised, as he quickly darted back a full step from Gilpin, just far enough away to cast another pair of portals.

The first of the openings was cast on the spot where Gilpin stood, and the vicious pirate was immediately swallowed up into the open space beneath the blue ring of light, disappearing completely from the beach.

The second of the pair of portals Shareef placed exactly six feet into the air above the sand in a spot not far distant from where he stood.

Gilpin tumbled out like wine spilled from a cheap bottle, and he had not a moment to catch himself before he landed hard in the sand, sending up another rooster tail to mark the point of his impact.  
Just as Gilpin began to shake off what amounted to a bad fall, Shareef moved another finger, and Gilpin fell into another portal. 

This time, Shareef did a slow count to five before he cast the second portal, this one a yard higher into the air in the last, from which Gilpin came tumbling out on the edge of a short frightened scream. One that filled his mouth with sand as his body slapped hard against the beach.

This time, Shareef stood well back, and gave Gilpin the chance to sit up and spit out the sand, along with his rising frustration and helplessness.

"Will you see reason this time, or do you want another flying lesson?" Shareef asked Gilpin calmly as the man spat out mouthfuls of sand, and made a game try at gathering himself for another attack.

But this time, Shareef was ready and waiting, and his Gilpin rushed forward toward Shareef, he did nothing except to throw himself into yet another portal Shareef had cast between them.

This time, Shareef counted slowly to ten before casting the second portal, but rather than let Gilpin risk surviving a higher fall, Shareef's second portal changed direction, and when it appeared, Gilpin came charging out, directly into the water, at a spot better than 10 yards from shore, where the ferocious waves simply picked him up and washed him back toward the tide line with the power and certainty that added to Shareef's retaliation.

Shareef waited again, this time counting almost half a minute before Gilpin twitched involuntarily, showing a hint of life in what looked like a pile of rags washed up from the ocean by the surf.

This time, when Shareef appeared to a hazy eyed, and much worse for the wear Gilpin, it was from above, speaking to him from the edge of a portal placed far too high for Gilpin to reach.

"Do you see now that doing violence to others only hurts you?" Shareef asked Gilpin objectively. "Do you wish more self injury, or will you help me?" Shareef asked pointedly.

Gilpin's indication of surrender was a weak wave of an unsteady hand, which quivered and dropped as his arm fell limp.

"Oh dear, Mister Gilpin!" Shareef chided. "You look like you could use a vacation at sea. Just this once, I will help you, and we will help each other." Shareef remarked casually.

Shareef dropped easily from a second portal onto the sand, still being cautious enough to approach Gilpin from the head, so the man's limbs would have no chance of grasping, nor grapple.

Shareef was surprised at the ease with which he picked up the spent figure of Mister Gilpin, and took the man over his shoulder, handling him like a sack of meal.

Gilpin's only contribution to the moment was a low, pathetic moaning. 

Shareef held onto Gilpin using one arm, leaving his other hand free to cast the first in line of portals which pointed out to sea, and toward the deck of The Black Swan.

About one quarter of the way between the Black Swan and the beach, the captain's gig finally caught a puff of the morning breeze, and her small squared sail finally helped the beleaguered oarsmen push her toward the shore, which still seemed a forever distance away.  
The rhythm set by the cox broke suddenly and sharply as a small circle of vivid blue light appeared over the forward most and of the longboat.

Most of the crew of the Swan heard about their supply ships become seagoing torches. A small minority of them, those were sharper eyes, had seen the same sort of vivid blue light illuminating the night sky as the ships burned as if someone had spilled oil all over them, and carelessly tossed away a coal from the stove.

The blue light instantly became part rumor and part legend among the mass of men crammed aboard the Black Swan. Some had seen it. Most had not. But whatever it was supposed to be, the blue light  
came to be known as a harbinger of disaster.

So before the sailors and longboat could change course, direction, or speed, the light hovered over them, and the prow of their boat!  
Before any man Jack of them could move or react, other than to let his jaw drop, a diminutive figure dressed in red and silver silks and a strange looking bit of headgear dropped silently onto the prow of their boat!

The shorter of the two figures, carried a more familiar person over his left shoulder, and even before he spoke one word, the strange visitor simply rolled the gob off of his shoulder with a frightening ease.

Mister Gilpin fell into the bottom of the longboat, face up, flat on his back, and facing away from the strange visitor.

"Here is your man, back home from Bonta." Shareef proclaimed in a strong voice as he stood absolutely still and perfectly balanced on the prow of the longboat.

"Some of his friends were not so lucky, and the others will be coming home only after a close look at a Bontarian jail." Shareef told them all before any of them could move, or react.

The first to regain his wits was the leader who never lost them to begin with, or so the story said.

But for just a moment, Commodore Diego Mendoza stood near the tiller of the captain's gig, as much in shock, and by expression as much in surprise as the rest of the longboat's complement of crew.

"May I have the pleasure of your name sir, before I order you run through?" Mendoza asked, thinking quickly, and projecting the strength that kept the boat crew from sheer panic.

"I am but a humble wayfarer, Esteemed Sir." Shareef replied, wisely keeping both his anonymity, and hiding his direct link to Bonta. "But I tell you, Commodore Mendoza. Your dastardly plan has failed, and there will be no sneak attack upon Bonta while you play at the parlay."

Commodore Mendoza chanced removing his eyes from the figure standing at the very front of the longboat, and looked downward quickly to the already black and blue figure of Mister Gilpin, who was obviously much the worse for wear, and meant to show it.

"Did you do that?" Mendoza asked casually.

"Seaman's fight, Sir." Shareef replied quickly. "A debt of long-standing, settled between us." Shareef added just as quickly, proclaiming an age-old right of the sea, under unwritten laws as ancient as the waves.

Commodore Mendoza sighed, gently but audibly. "Mister Gilpin has always been a fool, but, in the end, he is our fool." Mendoza remarked with a tone of resignation.

"Oi, Commodore Mendoza, Sir!" One of the oarsmen spoke up quickly.  
"I've seen this one before, while I sailed six months under Captain Soames!" The oarsmen told his captain in an excited tone. "This here one be Shareef, the captain's pet, and sort of a ships mascot, as you might say, Sir." The common sailor added.

"Have a care Sir!" Another man with an oar in his hand spoke up. "I've heard tell from others in the crew that this one is more dangerous than he looks." The second sailor told Mendoza quickly.

For his part, Mendoza simply cast another quick glance at the black and blue, used up figure sprawled in the bottom of the longboat. Then he looked directly at Shareef again. "So it would appear, my boys." 

Captain Mendoza said casually, replying to everyone, and to no one in particular.

Mendoza had the courage to turn one quarter away from Shareef for a moment, and when the Commodore turned back, he was holding a pistol in his hand, pointed directly at Shareef!

This time, Mendoza smiled. It was an expression Shareef had seen before. And it was warning enough, even before Mendoza spoke to his crew.

"Two gold sovereigns to the man who fetches our guest to me!" Mendoza interjected quickly.

The promise of another full share for the common seaman seemed to move the boat from surprise into action.

But as the quartet of oarsmen closest to the spot where Shareef stood bolted directly at him, Shareef was already moving.

Shareef maintained a stork like balance where he stood, while the sweep of his other leg in a broad circle caught three of the four sailors, right at the level of their chins, as Shareef's foot lashed out hard in a half circle.

The trio of stunned figures simply fell stiff, and directly backward, like boards falling to the floor!

Unlucky oarsmen number four caught a smashing edge of the hand chop from Shareef, that swept him sideways off of his feet, and into a cartwheel that swept him completely over the opposite side of the boat, and into the water!

"Now you have half the crew, Commodore. But these are wiser than the others. Try that again, and I'll sink you, just as I did your supply ships." Shareef threatened sharply, sounding angry, and every bit like he meant it, and could do it with ease after a moment of demonstration.

"See here, my lad!" Mendoza barked like a frightened small dog backed into a corner. "We are under flag of truce for the parlay!" Mendoza stammered as he slid his pistol back into the pocket of his coat, his hands slightly atremble at the thought of what Shareef might have done if he'd been stupid enough to actually try shooting at his powerful and very determined guest.

"So you are!" Shareef snapped in reply. "But it was you who ordered them to attack me. So it's you who broke the rules of the parlay." Shareef replied sternly. "But peace is always welcome in Bonta, even if it is a sea snake who brings it. The parlay holds, Commodore Mendoza. But understand that we recognize treachery, and if it is tried again, not only will the parlay be broken, but I'm certain King Louis will recognize it as an act of war." Shareef warned once again in his heaviest and most serious tone of voice.

This time, before Mendoza could gather his thoughts, Shareef let the remainder of the long boat crew see him cast a portal just above his head, jump upward slightly from the prow of the boat, and into the circle of blue light, where Shareef disappeared as easily as a puff of the morning breeze!

* * *

Shibu stood uneasy but still just outside the small structure of the observation point atop the keep of Bonta Castle. He glanced up, to take in and gauge the motion of the flags on the pole, that were just beginning to stir with the first draft of the morning breeze coming on shore to mark the beginning of another day.

Shibu's uncanny skill at counting let him know that Shareef had been gone just over a quarter of an hour, but to Shibu, it seemed more like a quarter of a lifetime. He had worried, as loving people do, about Felice and Cici many times, almost too many for him to remember.

But what Shibu felt crawling around in his stomach this morning was the worst most awful pulling sensation he had ever felt from his trained and well-controlled body.

No sensation he'd ever felt was quite so awful, and quite so languid as this one. As his instinctual count warned him of the passage of another minute, Shibu found himself struggling once more with a thought of simply going to find his brother, no matter where he might be. Shibu didn't need to track Shareef. Shibu knew where he was now and always, via the simplest of instincts. It was like finding your own heartbeat in your own chest. It was something so entirely natural that it was more reflex than thought.

But Shibu had given his word, and could not break it now, or ever, where Shareef was concerned. In spite of every tortuous moment which now counted upward in the back of his mind, as Shibu endured the most awful wait of his life.

Mentally, Shibu sought relief by taking control of the situation, and promising himself as much as Shareef that his brother had precisely four and one half minutes of grace remaining, before Shibu made himself up a reason to go looking for his brother. Shibu could already feel his body moving, the nervous tension which seem to inhabit his muscles flowing into a finer more controlled flow of energy. He redirected his own tension into a smooth and steady trained readiness, obeying the reflexes and the rules of his Ranger training.

He felt a slightly refreshing lick of the morning breeze against the warm skin of his cheek, and found himself looking around anxiously, in hope that it might have been stirred up by the opening of a portal.

Shibu knew far better. But now he was looking for any excuse to ease his tension into the flowing and powerful readiness that went with being both the Knight and a Ranger. Shibu knew that his training had taken over when he suddenly felt entirely undressed without his bow across his shoulders!

Shibu smiled, laughing at himself, and releasing his excess tension in the same moment, as he rejoiced in how deeply the Ranger ethos had become a part of him, just like his skin, or the muscles beneath it.

But even as his body slid into a trained readiness as his chosen moment drew closer, Shibu had to work that much harder at keeping his mind from racing onward, as his incisive mind began to race over long branches of possibility, like a young squirrel darting through the tree branches.

Wherever Shareef was, and no matter what he was doing, or what was being done to him, Shibu would and could find him, and bring him back to Bonta and the family.

Just as Shibu began to think about cheating on the last full minute he had given before action, a familiar circle of blue light open in space in front of him, and slightly above, allowing Shareef to drop through the portal, and pounce unexpectedly like a playful kitten on his unsuspecting brother!

Shibu's instinctual reaction was to use his shorter stature, but more powerful legs to lift his brother up, and swing Shareef around happily, even as Shareef's longer legs locked securely around Shibu's waist, and the brothers cuddled together, hugging tight and close while they turned a tight circle together to spend the energy of their meeting.  
Shareef held onto Shibu for dear life, kissing his bronze skinned Brother on cheeks and nose, No words passed between them in that moment, but none were needed.

For himself, time itself would have ended happily at that very moment, as Shareef found a bliss he had learned to miss even more over the preceding quarter of an hour.

Eventually, duty parted them, and Shareef drew his first full breath in almost two minutes, so he was able to speak to Shibu, on matters far more urgent and far less satisfying than their reunion.


	44. Healing Sans Brush

"Oh Shibu, I love you so much!" Shareef told his brother again, planting one more soft kiss directly on the tip of his nose.

"But in the name of all that's good for Bonta, we must see the King, and without delay!" Shareef begged urgently.  
Shibu set Shareef down, and went up on tiptoe to plant a reciprocal kiss on his brothers nose.

"As you wish, my brother!" Shibu replied with an affirmative strength that gave Shareef a case of very welcome chills.

Shibu did nothing more than move his finger, and a portal open before both of them. The brother stepped into it together, and were gone from the rooftop as if swept away by a puff of the rising breeze.

A moment later, the pair stood in a well-known alcove of the crystal throne room. Within this secluded space, the brothers could portal in, and not be seen, as a small door nearby meant for the servants made it appear as if the two of them had simply used the door to gain admittance to the throne room.

Shibu turned to his brother, before Shareef could take his first step toward leaving the alcove. Shibu took his brothers hand firmly into his own, and the two of them walked confidently out of the alcove, and matched each other stride for stride in an all-out run toward the throne, where King Louis had returned to his regal seat. In a few steps, they were on a familiar red velvet runner, and there dash along its ceremonial length very quickly put them at the foot of the Bontarian throne, where both of them knelt, one beside the other, as Shareef took his turn to address the King urgently.

"Noble sire, I bring most urgent news of a situation most worrying." Shareef said, picking his ceremonial words quickly.

This time there was no need for ceremonial anger, nor any place for it in the elderly monarch's true heart. This time, the elderly King smiled warmly as usual at the two brothers.

"Then speak, Squire Shareef, that we may know all that happens within our kingdom, from those whom we trust the most." The king replied, adding the demanded touch of regal ceremony required as the King spoke from the throne.

Shareef launched quickly into a short, but descriptive narrative of what had become of him along the Bontarian seashore and seacoast before the dawn. As the young squire spoke his tale to the King, Shibu was the first of his subjects to listen with jaw-dropping excitement and concern over the events in which Shareef had done his part for Bonta. 

As Shareef's recitation continued, more and more heads in the loosely assembled court which had gathered for the morning audience turned toward the throne and toward Shareef. It took him no more than two minutes of modesty to concisely describe the events along the coastline overnight. As soon as Shareef was finished, King Louis gently held up a hand, then the king took command of the situation.

"Guards!" The king snapped quickly.

Almost as if summoned by Master Chung's magic incantations, a half a dozen men in bright silver armor surrounded the throne and the King.

"At your command sire!" The senior most of the guardsmen said obediently.

"Take six more men." King Louis commanded. "Go to Far Point Beach, along the northeastern coastline. Look for bodies, both living and otherwise. Arrest anyone on the beach on suspicion of piracy. Bring them back here, jail them, and then report back to me. Go quickly, as if all Bonta depended upon it!" The king commanded urgently.

"It shall be done, my King!" The senior most of the guardsmen replied smartly, and adding a salute before he and his five companions turned and marched out of the crystal throne room at a run faster than double quick time.

This done, King Louis turned his attention back to the pair who were still on their knees before their King, and before the throne.

"Rise, both of you, and stand before us." King Louis commanded once more.

As Shibu and Shareef stood up tall before the King, their hands were still tightly clasped one in the other as they replied with one voice "At your command, sire!"

"If what Squire Shareef has related is the full truth, he shall have full knighthood, and before this day is out." King Louis informed the court out loud, so that everyone in court could hear and understand that his momentary ire directed at the two boys had well past, and the King was very pleased indeed for their bravery and fortitude for Bonta.

"Our spotters saw Mendoza's Longboat drawing nearer to the shore." King Louis informed Shibu and Shareef more quietly. "We had the thought that his request for parlay might be a cover for treachery of his own design. It serves Bonta well that we were right in our thinking, and that we had two such as you to stand for Bonta in an unexpected moment of need." The King told his court, and the two figures who stood at attention before the throne.

"We would be much pleased to hear from Sir Shibu and Sir Shareef what they would do next, in this moment for Bonta." The king told both of them seriously.

"Commodore Mendoza has been taught a stiff lesson, your Majesty." Shareef replied quickly. "He understands now that we will brook no treachery, so that what he will say when he comes to talk will be without subterfuge." Shareef added seriously. "I would advise your Majesty to extra caution, but I believe that after what has happened, Mendoza just might see reason, and therefore perhaps listen to a settlement which would save face for him in front of his crew, while keeping Bonta safe from harm." Shareef continued after a moment of thought.

The King nodded tightly, and then looked hopefully toward Bonta's newest knight.

"Your opinion, Sir Shibu?" The king asked directly.

"Bonta stands ready to defend herself, sire. If Mendoza is ill-advised enough to bring a dagger wrapped in a peace treaty, the kingdom is ready. But I would hear what Mendoza has to say, simply to discover what is in his heart and mind, after master Shareef took him to school overnight." Shibu replied proudly, as he looked away from the King for a moment to smile brightly at his brother, and to see Shareef blushing modestly at his side.

"Your opinion shows both the wisdom and understanding which we have come to respect and to treasure, Sir Shibu." The king said, making up for his earlier scolding of Shibu and Shareef from the throne itself.

"Let Mendoza come, and let him bring what he will. Bonta will always meet peace with peace, but treachery will be met with stern retribution, I so promise my people."

The King's solemn pronouncement brought a round of applause, from those assembled within his court, waiting for the morning audience, which Mendoza was now expected to attend, although exactly when was uncertain.

"Sirs Shibu and Shareef." The king commanded as the grateful applause from his court fell silent. "You know more of these men, and of these matters than any pair in Bonta. We charge both of you to attend this "parlay" to advise us directly upon such things as you may find important or urgent that we understand during our negotiations."

"By your command, sire!" Shibu answered quickly and formally. "I will however beg a boon from your most magnificent Majesty." Shibu asked formally.

"For Sir Shibu, Bonta's newest knight?" King Louis asked. "You have but to name it, and I promise it shall be." King Louis replied adding a warm smile that went straight through Shibu and touched his heart.

He knew then that all that had come before had been forgiven him. Now there was only one more thing he required before the two of them faced Mendoza.

"I ask to leave your Majesty's presence for only a moment, so as to fetch my bow and quiver." Shibu asked directly. "I will not come armed to a parlay, but if things go badly, then I shall meet Mendoza as a Ranger once the parlay be broken, if broken it be." Shibu added with a touch of resolution meant to rouse the bravery of the others in the court, as well as show Shibu's own feelings to King Louis in return.

"Spoken like a well and true Ranger, our gallant Shibu. Your request is granted, and we trust your absence shall be short, and your return as swift as we know that you can run. Sir Shareef may accompany you, if you wish it, Sir Shibu." King Louis said with an aire and tone of regal command.

Shibu and Shareef both dropped to one knee before the throne, and then both of them were racing once more for the secluded alcove where they could cast a portal without being seen. Both brothers already knew that the best place to track the approach of Mendoza's small craft was from the top of their own tower. And Shibu also understood, as would any Ranger, that if needs be, the top of their tower would be the perfect place for a keen and accurate sniper, in case Mendoza had a change of heart on the beach.

It took only a moment of blue light for the brothers to find themselves not only back home in their tower, but in the small room which was the highest in the entire lofty white stone structure.

As the pair of brothers dropped through their familiar passageway through compacted space, Shibu was surprised to see his bow, and a full quiver sitting almost obediently on the small table in one corner of what was Shibu's observatory.

As he took a step toward the table, Shibu was also quick to spy a familiar parchment, covered in a set of strange almost runic letters that were now as familiar to Shibu as his own name. He quickly plucked up the parchment, and read it aloud for Shareef's benefit as his brother stood close by.

"My dear and proudest brother." Shibu read aloud. "Given the events of the day, and what happened at court, I have Ranger reason to think you may want these very much indeed before the end of the day." Shibu recited from the parchment, his eyes following the columns up and down, rather than from left to right as he read the note to Shareef.

"Six sleeping arrows, six explosive tips, and the balance, three dozen cloth yard shafts." Shibu recited from the text in his hands.

"I figured today, you would be ready for them, and they ready for you, although I pray to Cra that no one of them will be fired in anger this day. May the protection of the goddess follow us all. I'll see you and Shareef tonight for supper. Your loving sister, and chief of the Rangers, Cici."

When Shibu let the note dropped back to the table, and he reached to collect his bow and quiver, Shareef noticed that Shibu's normally steady hands were quivering. The moment that Shibu picked up his bow, the quiver in Shibu's hands, which matched the quiver in Shibu's heart, also vanished.

Shareef watched, as always, and learned as Shibu slid his quiver over his right shoulder, and then slid his body into and through his bow, so the string fell taught against his broad chest, and the bow sat comfortably, and diagonally across his broad back and muscular shoulders. In this way, it would be off his shoulder, and into his hands with an arrow knocked before any eye could follow his motion. 

Shareef had seen Shibu practice this motion each and every day, until it had become as natural for Shibu as the movements for baking bread had become to Shareef.

Seeing Shibu with his bow, and knowing that the bow and the Archer were truly one, granted Shareef a renewed sense of hope and security. Not for hostility and violence, but instead the same gentle and powerful hope for peace that filled the heart of the master of his bow. Shareef watched intently, his green eyes ablaze with pride as Shibu squared himself, and stepped away from the table, seemingly having transformed himself in the space of a single step into the most perfect Ranger that Shareef could imagine.

"Now for Mendoza." Shibu said, sounding a Ranger's tone of typical taciturn determination.

"Be wary of him, brother Shibu. Captain Soames knew him to be a man of foul treachery, and dark dealings. Which is why we never sailed with Mendoza. Soames always said that Mendoza would come to a bad end, as would any who followed him." Shareef warned quietly.

"Then I figure that we have to be wherever he is, Shareef. Because light should always force back the darkness, especially so close to the dawn." Shibu replied quietly.

This time, it was Shareef's turn to open the portal, and with the speed of the sand cat's blink, both of them were standing on the small platform at the top of the tower, looking down far below, on the stretch of beach, where Shibu had been knighted, and where Mendoza had first touched Bontarian soil.

Now his long boat could be seen, far smaller than it seemed, as it cut through the moderate waves closer to the shore, pushed by a brisk breeze toward a firm landing upon the sands below.

Shibu took in the sight with no outward sign of emotion, except to cross his wonderfully thick archers arms across his broad chest and wait, for the moment.

But this time, Shareef's reaction was much more natural, and more visceral than any sound Shibu had ever heard.

This time, Shareef allowed the sand cat's formidable and menacing growl to roll out of him at full strength and volume. It was by far a more powerful and ominous sound than the crashing of waves upon which Commodore Mendoza had depended for his surreptitious return to Bonta.

Literally and figuratively looking down on Mendoza, the Eliotrope brothers waited for their moment. It was clear that Shareef wanted to arrive on the beach, before the King and the party of rural guards would appear.

As a pair of the sailors jumped out of the prow of the longboat, and gave her a mighty pull up onto the solid shore, Shibu nodded shortly at Shareef.

Shareef cast a pair of portals in midair, and both brothers somersaulted into them as if they were doing nothing more casual than walking down one of Bonta's white stone streets.

But their action had exactly the effect that Shibu desired. The pair of brothers appeared from an upstanding circle of blue light, and walked onto the beach as if the two of them owned all of Bonta.  
There unusual arrival had quite the opposite effect on the crew of the longboat, many of whom had seen the blue light flicker before the supply ships that were now artificial reefs began to burn, and their entire voyage began to run foul.

The two sailors anchoring the longboat were so surprised and fearful that they dove full-length back into the boat, and got as far away from the blue light as they possibly could.

After a moment, they were met with a stern look of disapproval, and a not very gentle kick from a pair of hard and formal leather boots which adorned Commodore Mendoza.

"Get up, you scurvy rats!" Mendoza growled in a low, threatening tone as he gave both of the sailors a good swift kick. It help them quickly out of the longboat once again, and back to nearly the same spot where they had stood on the shore as the threatening portal winked silently out of existence.

"Well, who do we have here?" Commodore Mendoza asked, striking an informal and unusually cordial tone.

"You know me very well, Commodore." Came Shareef's deadpan reply, stripped of all but the most essential courtesy called for by the situation.

Standing next to Shareef, Shibu made a demonstration out of sliding his bow off of his shoulder, and laying it down crosswise on a nearby flat rock. He took off the quiver, and placed it next to his bow, making a show of being completely disarmed, as the law of the the parlay demanded.

Commodore Mendoza paused for a moment, to take a pinch of snuff in the rising morning breeze. He knew it was up to Shareef to make the introduction, if there was to be one, as simple courtesy for the occasion demanded.

"This is my brother Shibu, Knight and Ranger of Bonta." Shareef said with the same unemotional voice, and flat manners.

"My, doesn't he look formidable?" Commodore Mendoza questioned. "Tell me, Shareef, is it? Is Bonta in the habit of giving such dangerous toys to children?" Mendoza asked, as the captain of the black swan made a show of belittling both of the brothers.

"Why not step across the beach, Commodore, and I'll gladly show you what sort of child I happen to be." Shareef replied. If Shareef had been a sand cat, his ears would've laid flat as he retorted Mendoza's insult.

Shareef made a motion, shifting his weight slightly, as if to begin a step forward toward the Commodore and his delegation. But as he moved, Shareef felt Shibu's hand squeeze his shoulder, admirably restraining Shareef where he stood. 

"That would accommodate Mendoza, my brother." Shibu told Shareef.

"For now, we're here to talk, and not to fight, lucky enough it is for this crew of bilge rats." Shibu growled, sounding admirably like a sand cat in his own right. Beneath his steady hand, Shibu felt Shareef relax, and draw back into a more casual stance, allowing the strip of sand to separate the two parties, as had been agreed, as the brothers awaited the arrival of the Royal guard, and the King, who would speak for all of Bonta, including the two brothers, during the parlay.

Fortunately for Mendoza and his justifiably frightened crew, the moment of the King's arrival was not far distant. Shibu felt relieved, as Theo and another of the Royal guard pushed open the great Oak doors at the base of Shibu's tower. Twenty-eight more of the Royal guards followed, wearing full armor, but caring no weapons. The guard detachment was divided into two lines, and between the two of them, walking with his usual air of authority, came King Louis IV of Bonta.

The King himself wasted no pleasantry upon the tall well-dressed commander of the fleet that had, in essence, invaded his country.

"Speak your piece, you miserable bandit." King Louis commanded sharply. "We have better things to do than to bandy words with the likes of you and your scurvy crew." King Louis said, showing the short temper which both brothers had seen close up not so long before.

"Your Majesty!" Mendoza replied, greeting the King as manners required with a courtly bow that also swept his broad brimmed, black feathered hat from his head, as the Commodore dropped to one knee before the monarch. "I come here seeking honorable peace, and justice for my men." Mendoza stated formally.

"You came here to sack my city, ruin my kingdom, and take the lives of my people, and their sundry possessions, you overdressed poltrune!" King Louis shot back quickly. "But then you discovered something you did not expect. The strong and swift resistance of a free people who are not afraid of the likes of you." King Louis added scornfully.

"If your Majesty would hear my proposal?" Mendoza interrupted.

"No, by heaven!" King Louis growled. "You'll hear my terms, and none other, you overdressed lout!"

Across the strip of sand, Mendoza fell silent for the moment, as he returned to his feet.

"We shall grant you leave to stay in Bonta and her waters until the next change of the tide. At which time, you and your much reduced fleet will sail away, out of our waters, and away from our kingdom, never more to return." King Louis told Commodore Mendoza sharply, not mincing his words, nor coating them with diplomatic finery.

"And now, the kingdom of Bonta shall hear your reply, Commodore."

When Mendoza's turn came, his face was nothing more than a mask, set with the scowl of contempt. The man himself was shaking slightly, not with fear, but as Shibu and Shareef could sense, with a barely suppressed rage, which turned his next words into a vile sounding hiss that any sensible cobra would've feared.

"Hear now the orders of Commodore Diego Mendoza, Master of the black swan, and leader of twenty score men and true." Mendoza began, barely able to speak as he made a visible effort to tamp down his volcanic rage. "We shall forgo any damage to the people, or the precincts of the kingdom of Bonta in exchange for the reasonable sum of five million Kamas. Plus, and indemnity for your insulting behavior of an additional two million Kamas, to be divided as I see fit among my loyal crew, in reparation for your vile insults, you toothless old man." Mendoza growled. "Your reign is at an end, and the reign of his finest Majesty Diego the First is about to begin. Submit now, make a modest payment, and your city will be spared. If not, you will leave us no choice except to take the city by siege, and finally, by assault. Should this be necessary, there will be no quarter given to anyone in the kingdom of Bonta."

Having held their places near the cordon of the Royal guards which made way for the King, Shibu and Shareef both listened to the outrageous demands levied by the pirate Captain.

Standing at the side of the man they most admired, neither one of the brothers could imagine the nightmare about to be turned loose on the people and the city of Bonta.

Shareef could feel Shibu standing next to him, as his brother slowly burned in a silent and uncharacteristic display of anger and disbelief.

But the rules of the parlay would permit him to say nothing, and moreover to do nothing without the permission of either the King or Commodore Mendoza.

Shibu already understood what the King's response would be. But the form of it took him entirely by surprise, as it did Shareef.

As Mendoza fell silent at last, the King seemed to ignore him for a moment, as he fished around for something in one of the ceremonial pockets of his robe. After a moment King Louis produced one of the familiar coins usually given to people who came before him with a problem at the General audience. Shibu knew these coins very well, as he treasured several of them from his own first meeting with King Louis.

But this time, the King held the ceremonial coin between his two fingers, casually flipping it out in Mendoza's direction. The heavy coin sailed to a spot almost precisely between the two of them and stirred up a small geyser of sand as it landed between King Louis and Commodore Mendoza.

"That is the extent of any money, or any treasure you will take from Bonta, unless we decide otherwise." King Louis snarled at Mendoza.

Having said all he needed to say, the King stepped back and away, although both Shibu and Shareef noticed that the elderly monarch never took his eyes from Mendoza's own.

"So much for the parlay." Shibu dared to whisper quietly to Shareef, who stood at his side.

Shareef nodded, and then took a step forward himself.

"Most noble sire?" Shareef inquired formally. "May a representative of our people be given a word at this august gathering?" Shareef asked, being careful to go down on one knee before he spoke to the throne.

"The honored representative of the Eliotrope people is recognized.   
You may speak freely, Representative Shareef." The king replied as the formal requirements of the parlay dictated.

"I thank you, noble King Louis." Shareef replied bringing a polished and reasonable tone to the discussion.

"I think it is necessary to shift from ourselves, and from the kingdom of Bonta responsibility for what will happen to Commodore Mendoza and the men under his command should he attempt to carry out his ill advised threat against your Majesty, and the Bontarian people." Shareef told both King Louis, and Commodore Mendoza, whose flighty expression took on more and more of a look of scorn as Shareef spoke.

"I must officially advise Commodore Mendoza that the Kingdom of Bonta, her crown, and all of her people have this day become allies to our people." Shareef began by way of explanation. 

"You see, Commodore Mendoza, it was we, the Eliotropes, who fired your supply ships, in order to preclude the siege of Bonta, as you had so nefariously planned. We did this to protect both the people of Bonta, and the people under your command, whose lives you would spend so freely to pay for your own greed." Shareef explained, as Shibu did his level best to stand beside his brother and look every bit like the imposing Ranger that he was.

"The Eliotrope people will not permit any such act of violence to be perpetrated upon innocent civilians. Nor will we pay blackmail to anyone who threatens our allies with the commission of crimes, or threats to their people in exchange for any sort of ransom."

Having finished, Shareef took a full step back, reestablishing his place at his brother side, has the parlay fell momentarily silent.

King Louis glanced sidelong in the direction of Shareef and Shibu. And when the elderly monarch looked back at Commodore Mendoza, there was a new strength of fire and resolve in King Louis's eyes.

"Your crews have seen the power which our allies possess. By night, they took three of your ships, burned them, and sent them to the bottom, with passing ease and simplicity." King Louis told the Commodore.

The pointed reminder of the size of Mendoza's shrinking fleet seem to make him uneasy for just a moment, in the face of his put on defiance.

King Louis's moment of silence awarded Mendoza a moment for reflection before the King spoke up again.

"Last night, three ships, and all the supplies for your siege." King Louis sounded in a reminding tone. "Should you attack tonight, who knows if any of your ships will see tomorrow's tide?” King Louis questioned openly.

Across the strip of sand, King Louis's older and more experienced eyes saw Mendoza shrink in stature, practically shriveling under the weight of his ornate formal dress, heavy leather coat, and black plumed hat.

"Your Majesty has heard my terms. I have heard your reply." Commodore Mendoza said formally, as the rules of the parlay required.

"Let us now retire, to rest our minds, and to cool our tempers. I extend to the city of Bonta, her kingdom, and her citizens all, twelve additional hours to reach their final decision." Mendoza said formally. "We came in peace, and the truth shall extend from the time which we return to my ship. We shall wait a signal holding your final answer." Mendoza continued. "I pray for the sake of your people, your decision is both just and wise, for the stipulation of no quarter holds true, and if we are forced to defend ourselves, those who die shall be considered fortunate in the face of the fate which we shall bring to Bonta should she foolishly choose to stand against us, no matter how many allies she may have." 

Mendoza closed his part of the parlay with the end of his formal statement, and the rules which bound both sides required him to stand, and wait, to hear King Louis' response.

"And you have heard the response of the throne of Bonta, and her noble allies." King Louis said simply. "Sail away, Commodore, both you and your fleet, while you still can. If you heed not this warning, the fate that awaits you shall be a song sung by Bontarian voices for the next thousand years." King Louis told the other side formally across the strip of sand.

"You are free to leave our presence, our city, and our land." King Louis told Mendoza by way of closure. "Unlike you, we shall honor the customs of peace, and no harm shall come to you during the truce which you have extended. Leave now, in safety, and darken our kingdom never more."

Commodore Mendoza made the required bow in the direction of the throne, and without so much as another whisper, the master of the black swan remounted the longboat, and stood his ground as two of his crew pushed the longboat back into the surf. The pair of sailors jumped back into the boat, each took an oar, and the longboat began a slow and difficult journey back toward Mendoza's fleet, against the now prevailing tide.

Once the longboat full of vipers had put to sea once more, Shibu went up on his toes, making a slow and determined display of walking back toward the flat rock on the sea wall where Shibu had placed his bow.  
Shareef, King Louis and the other members of the Bontarian truce party watched in complete silence as Shibu took up his formidable, and most personal weapon once more.

“By your leave, Sire. My Brother and I will depart for a time, to seek the council of our own people.” Shibu stated, upholding the formalities of the moment, even on the Bontarian beach.

“Granted, Sirs Shibu and Shareef. And know you both in this hour our deepest gratitude for your diplomacy and commitment to our Peace and Security.”

“long live Bonta, Your Majesty.” Both brothers replied with one voice as they bowed toward the throne and withdrew, slowly at first, as manners required. But at ten paces distant both brothers went up on their toes, and shot away like sped arrows, using the full power of the Ranger Run!


	45. Recognition

Shibu and Shareef stood side-by-side, watching the longboat and its odious crew lashing hard against the tide, trying to get back to the ship as quickly as possible.

"I hope that is the last we will see of Mendoza." Shareef said quietly to Shibu. "But my heart, as well as my head tell me otherwise." Shareef observed.

Shibu's reply was as simple and direct as he was. He reached over and gently but firmly took Shareef's hand in his own, as the two brothers stood beside each other on the sand.

Both brothers were surprised the moment later to see the regal figure of King Louis step down gently onto the sand from the portable version of the throne he had used during the parlay.

With an audible sigh, King Louis collected the ceremonial coin he had tossed lackadaisically he had Mendoza. But before it went back into the Royal pocket, on the regal robe, King Louis was careful to blow all the sand away from it with a deep breath. He then shined it up slightly on the arm of his robe before dropping the coin back into the hidden ceremonial pocket from which it had come.

Then, King Louis took a long look out to sea, to gauge how far in the distance the longboat had gone over the first minute or so.

When the King looked back at the pair of brothers, he caught their attention with a slight motion of two fingers. The indication of the sign was simple and direct. The King was headed back for the well known and established space at the base of Shibu's tower.

Louis didn't bother to remount the throne, making a steady and eager show of walking back toward the tower without having to be carried by a vanguard of his Royal troops. No one in Louis entourage spoke so much as a single word, as the Royal guard unit itself seem to pick up on the Kings intention, and the entire entourage made a quick and quiet step toward the base of the tower. Before another minute and passed, the entire royal party was sealed securely behind a pair of solid oak doors which were among the most sturdy and secure in the entire Kingdom.

As soon as the King was alone with Shibu and Shareef, he dismissed the Royal guard, once more using a familiar and soundless sign that Shibu had seen many times before. Instantly, the thirty man detachment formed into two ranks of fifteen, and marched away quickly, turning at an easy right wheel to use the long passage which led back to the castle from Shibu's tower.

The last man in each of the two lines paused at another set of solid Oak doors, this time to close them, and lock him from the inside, as King Louis himself did the same thing from the outside.  
Now the three of them were truly alone, and King Louis could speak his mind to two of his knights, and to two of the people who meant the most to him in all of Bonta.

"Shibu, Shareef, we need to talk." King Louis began in a somewhat tired voice.

The two brothers had been walking close behind the King as the entourage made for the safety of the tower. Now the three of them were standing no more than arms length apart, King Louis talk to them both in a calm and settled voice.

"First of all, Shibu and Shareef, I have to beg your apology." King Louis began slowly.

"Whatever it is, there's nothing to forgive, your Majesty." Shibu spoke up almost before King Louis had finished speaking.

"Brother Shibu is right, your highness. What we did was wrong and--"

"No, no!" The silver haired King of Bonta replied quickly. “Please forgive and forget what happened at court. That was me being both the King, and a friend, worried and scared for both of you, and for Felice and Cici." King Louis explained quickly. "But I've done you both another wrong, for which I must ask your forgiveness." King Louis added at the end, his voice filling with just a touch more of regret.

"Whatever it is, your Majesty, consider it forgiven, and we hope, just as easily forgotten as any offense we might have done to your Majesty." Shareef told the King in a sympathetic tone.

"You two have been so much of a blessing to this kingdom, and to our people, that we have forgotten that you are also visitors from a place which is not Bonta." King Louis began, speaking slowly to gather his words and his thoughts by way of explanation. "You both adopted Bonta so freely and so willingly that we never thought of you as anything else except Bontarian." The king told the pair of brothers. "But the truth is that you are also members of a race that Bonta has never seen before. As such, you are also representatives of your own people, just as Shareef said at the parlay." King Louis recalled. "You are indeed stalwart allies to Bonta, as good and better as any Bontarian born in this castle, or anywhere within our kingdom." King Louis paused, to draw a slightly labored breath, and to look at Shibu and Shareef with regret and sorrow, with his own vibrant blue eyes alight with pride and satisfaction and directly at Shibu and Shareef.

"Sire?" Shibu whispered quietly.

"Yes my lad?" King Louis replied. "Speak freely, and don't hold back whatever is in your heart." King Louis instructed gently.

"Bonta is my home." Shibu began simply. "It was, and is the city of my hopes, and of my dreams. The city that took in a stranger, and gave him a place to call home. In my heart, through and through, I consider myself as Bontarian as your Majesty considers himself Bontarian. It is a matter of both love, and loyalty. From what I have learned of our people, the Eliotropes, love and loyalty are virtues among them as well." Shibu told both his friend and his monarch in a quiet, determine voice that King Louis had heard the very first time the two of them had met.

"Shareef?" King Louis asked quietly.

"Your Majesty, I am a stranger, saved from the caprice of the sea, and put ashore in a good land, populated by a fine people whom I admire. And the land wherein I found the most miraculous thing of all. That I am no longer alone in all the world. Wherever my brother stands, I will stand, and nothing and no one will ever come between us." Shareef began in a quiet whisper, calling up slow and steady words from the depths of his heart as he spoke.

"Bonta took me in as well, when my world fell to pieces, and I lost the only life I had ever known. But it is not for this reason alone that I am loyal to Bonta. I admire you greatly, and the people you lead are a good, kind people, the sort of which I never knew outside of my parents. Bonta is my family now, because my brother is also a member of a Bontarian family. And anyone who tries to harm my family, I shall fight."

Shareef ended with quiet resolution and a surprising strength that made his own green eyes shimmer as much and as brightly as the King's own blue eyes.

"I want both of you to understand that I've never doubted you, either of you, for so much as a single moment since I first laid eyes on you side-by-side." King Louis replied solemnly. "If I have ever given you any reason in all by word or deed to doubt my own belief in both of you, it is I who owe you a most regal apology." King Louis told Shibu and Shareef quietly but seriously.

"As we have said, your Majesty." Shibu began. "There is nothing to forgive, your highness. We pledge ourselves to Bonta, and to our home, because it is the right thing to do, and you are the leader for which it should be done." Shareef finished for the pair of brothers.

"I think what you said at the parlay was absolutely brilliant." The king replied shifting his gaze slightly to Shareef. "One thing is for sure, what you did the other night put a king-sized scare into Mendoza and his thugs." King Louis told the brothers. "If I had led the entire Bontarian Navy to sea against Mendoza, I could not have defeated him any more comprehensively than the three of you did with daring, skill, and surprise." King Louis answered. "You gave us an advantage we still have. For the first time, perhaps in his entire life, Mendoza is scared, because you three stood up to him. And that saved Bonta. I want you to know that, absolutely. In spite of anything I may have said in public at Court.

"Advantage in war is a slippery thing." Shareef replied. "It can shift like cargo rolling around on a ship caught in a storm at sea."  
"The advantage we have as Eliotropes is not only in what we can do, but in our numbers." Shibu observed after thinking the matter over for a moment. "Mendoza does not know how many of us there are."

"The two of us gave Mendoza something he's never had before. A beating. He lost, and everyone knows it, including his crew. If two of us could do what we did to him, imagine Mendoza's terror if he thought that there were twenty of us, rather than two." Shareef reflected.

Shibu brightened as he listened to his brother. "Your Majesty, deception is another important ally in time of war." Shibu began. "If Mendoza is holding back because he thinks there are as many of us as there might be Cra archers, then for Bonta's sake, we will have to show him as many of us as we can." Shibu reasoned as the King and his brother listened intently.

"I see your point, Sir Shibu. And right you are. But the fact remains that there are only two of you. How many times could the two of you bamboozle Mendoza before he catches on to the trick?" King Louis asked seriously, not wanting to see either of the pair risk themselves again, even for Bonta.

"Counting bodies is to Mendoza's advantage." Shareef replied. "That is why he believes that his four hundred men give him an unbeatable advantage." Shareef added.

The trio of the King and his two most unusual subjects stood still for a moment, pondering in silence, and trying to think.

It was Shareef, the refugee from the sea whose green eyes brightened with the energy of a thought nearly as keen as the Eliotropes blue beam.

"Suppose Mendoza does not see four hundred Eliotropes." Shareef began slowly. "But suppose he does see four hundred beams of the blue light which wrought such havoc upon his fleet." Shareef reasoned.

The single thought of what Mendoza would do made King Louis chuckle right out loud, a short laugh of surprise and delight which lifted his spirits as much as seeing Shibu at his forge.

"The world of the Twelve wouldn't be big enough to let him sail far enough away!" King Louis interjected. "I bet he'd be scared right out of the water, and wouldn't stop running until he found a tall mountain top where he couldn't see another blue light ever again." King Louis told Shareef with a smile.

"Now brother, tell us how it works." Shibu said with a smile that lit up his face as much is his pure blue eyes.

"First I must inquire, and request something of your Majesty." Shareef asked in a sly and secretive whisper.

"Shareef, I once told you that anything in Bonta was yours for the asking. And I never meant it as much as I do now. Everything Bonta has is yours in her hour of need.

"I shall need a large, very fine diamond, and then I shall need mirrors, sire, perhaps all the full length mirrors in Bonta." Shareef told the King and his brother.

"Won't Felicity simply love that idea?" Shibu spoke up with a touch of whimsy in his voice.

"And it is mirrors of that sort exactly that I shall need to build a new sort of lighthouse tower, your Majesty." Shareef told his brother and the King. "Why create only four beams of light when four can be reflected many times,become four-hundred and put high in the sky, just where Mendoza and his crew can count them."

Standing next to Shareef, Shibu lit up like the tower Shareef proposed to build. Instantly, he recalled the tower drawn into the blue stone walls of the catacombs, deep below the castle.

The Eliotropes had built something like it in ancient times, using a reflective gem, to split the beam from a portal again and again, until the sky, represented by the very blue stones was charged with the same blue light that gently illuminated the catacombs when either of the two brothers were there.

"Shareef, if you're going to make a habit of saving Bonta, we may just have to find something higher than a knighthood to reward you!" Shibu told him brightly.

"All right, you two." King Louis answered, finding the energy from Shibu and Shareef just as contagious as it was an attractive shade of blue. "Whatever it is, it's something you clearly understand, where I do not." King Louis confessed freely. "But I do have one question." The king said now much more quietly than before. "Can it be built and working within twelve hours?" King Louis asked his two most gifted and unusual subjects.

"For realm such as Bonta, my good King Louis, it's good people make everything possible, with a touch of Eliotrope inspiration." Shareef replied brightly. “I shall need a maker of lenses, if Bontarians have one among them, and all the carpenters and wood workers in the entire kingdom, If your Majesty pleases.”

"As of now, anything in the kingdom that you need is yours. Just tell me what it is, and where you want it, and that is what will happen."  
King Louis replied quickly. He made a swift motion with one finger toward the closest Royal guard. The guard stepped to the King's side, awaiting orders.

“Find Mister Falvus, the man who made my glasses.” Louis ordered fast. “Bring him here as fast as you can, in my Name. Also put out a call for carpenters and wood workers of every kind. Bring them all to me, at once. Hurry, Man, for the sake of our kingdom!”

“At once, Noble Sire!” the guard responded, and was gone just as quickly.

“Fair enough?” the King wanted to know,as he glanced toward Shareef.

“As my Brother would say “Way Cool!” Sire.” Shareef responded. “we already have plans of a sort drawn up, so much time will be saved.”

“Excellent, both of you!” we'll beat back these brigands, you wait and see how fast they run.” King Louis said with both confidence and Pride.” “Anything else that a King can help you with for the moment?'” Louis asked quietly, smiling at both Shibu and Shareef.

"There is one small matter sire." Shibu spoke up. "In order for us to build the structure of the tower, on top of our own tower, we will have to use some of our unique skills. Skills that no Bontarian, including your Majesty, has ever seen before." Shibu told King Louis.

The elderly monarch rested his chin on his thumb for just a moment before replying.

"I admire you both, and I trust you both, both with my own safety, and that of my kingdom. Without the two of you, Mendoza will leave us no kingdom at all. So, Bonta has nothing to lose, and with the two of you, everything to hope for." King Louis replied thoughtfully. "Now let's get working. Mendoza gave us twelve hours, and we have twelve hours to build victory." King Louis told Shibu and Shareef. "Now, what will you two need first of all?" King Louis asked, catching the excitement of the two brothers, as they took hands with the King, and embraced him warmly.

"For Bonta, and for family!" The three of them said at the same time, in one united voice.

Suddenly, it was King Louis himself who brightened with an idea.  
"I can provide something else that you mentioned." The king told Shibu and Shareef with a pleased tone in his voice. "The two of you, come with me." The King instructed.

King Louis and the pair of brothers vanished quickly into a passageway which led back toward the keep of Bonta Castle. In only a few minutes the trio was standing in the throne Room, having appeared as if by magic to the assembled nobles of the Royal Court who waited patiently to attend the King.

His Majesty strode past the Throne itself, and the Nobles of his Court, seeming to ignore the seat of Royal authority, in favour of a familiar door directly behind the throne itself. 

The door itself was opened for the trio by one of the Royal footmen, and closed just as quickly as the trio walked into the Royal bedchamber.

Without ceremony, King Louis kept moving, toward what looked like a blank wall on the opposite side of the bedroom.

The monarch of all Bonta took the time to look around slightly, before he tapped the wall in front of them solidly with two fingers. A pair of spring-loaded doors built into the wall, and expertly camouflaged sprang open in front of King Louis.

Both Shareef and Shibu gasped out loud, as the King of Bonta took the state crown of Bonta from its ceremonial resting place on the velvet pillow, and carried it gently back toward the nightstand opposite the sumptuous Royal bed. "Here is one of the things you need." King Louis said simply, setting the ornate bejeweled crown down gently upon the night table.

At the peak of the crown, there was a familiar stone the size of a robin's egg, that caught the light in the room, and instantly sparkled to a vivid life all its own.

King Louis reached for the crown, and after a couple of seconds of determined manipulation, the largest diamond in Bonta slid out of it setting on the state crown, and into the Royal hand.

King Louis handed it directly to Shareef, as if the priceless stone was no more than the trinket bought in one of the bazaars deep beneath the castle!

"There's that." King Louis said with both conviction and satisfaction in his voice. "I can vouch for this being the largest diamond in all of Bonta." The king told Shareef simply.

"Your Majesty, I am overwhelmed." Shareef stammered in complete shock and surprise.

"Be overwhelmed later." King Louis advised. "For now, none of us can spare the time."

King Louis took a moment. All were seated on the edge of the ornate Royal bed as Louis hugged both Shibu and Shareef close to him.

"I may not get a chance to say this again." King Louis told them in a quiet whisper. "I never had sons all these years. But now, I feel I have a pair of them. And I could not be prouder of both of you, no matter what happens."

King Louis allowed the pair of brothers to stand again, and hurried them about their nights business with a simple wave of his hand. "If you need anything else, just let me know. I know that the two of you can make this work. I believe in you, and Bonta believes in you. Go on now, and will have another talk when all this is done, and Bonta is safe again." The king told him in a soft whisper.

"Yes, your Majesty." Both brothers replied at the same time.

In another moment, both Shareef and Shibu were dashing for the bedroom door, with the most perfect diamond in all of Bonta held securely in the pocket of Shibu's red and silver silks.

After they were gone from the Royal bedchamber, and it's door closed King Louis into a moment of privacy, the King had one more thought.

"I suppose I should find lady Felice, and let her know about this as well." The King mused to himself aloud.

So saying, the King stood up, and allowed himself a moment to stretch. With a happy smile on his face, he walked in a quick step toward the bedroom door which opened before him, and back out into the throne room, where the assembled courtiers of Bonta awaited his presence in a night filled with tension. And a night which King Louis knew would soon be illuminated with the blue light of hope.

* * *

Shibu and Shareef dashed for a familiar alcove, just off of the massive doors to the main throne room. The great doors of state were still barred by a pair of massive steel beams that defied any attempt at the doors being opened without Royal assent. But no door ever held the brothers in check. As soon as they were out of sight of everyone in the throne room, Shibu's fingers moved first to cast a portal. The two brothers disappeared instantly, to reappear on a dimly lit landing that was the midpoint of the staircase to the catacombs. This time, Shareef cast the next pair, and the brothers stepped out a moment later into the main room of the catacombs, which instantly illuminated with the blue light that seem to come from the energy of the brothers themselves.

Shibu stepped quickly to his work table. He picked up a fine scroll of vellum paper, and a thick stick of charcoal, pointed at one end by a knife blade, to make drawing and sketching easier.

With his materials in hand, Shibu turned along with Shareef, and made a headlong dash for specific place along the nearby wall that was decorated with ancient line drawings done by the Eliotrope people in ages past.

Shibu knew this room as well as he knew his own life story, and he stopped with determination and care in front of one particular spot in a series of line drawings that seem to channel and use the energy of the blue light in the cavern to take on a life of their own.  
Shibu unrolled the vellum paper, and held it to the wall with two fingers, pressing it gently over the stones which bore the line drawing he wanted to copy.

With the other hand, he handed the charcoal stick to Shareef.

"I'll hold the paper." Said Shibu as he shifted his hands to use both of them to flatten and hold the slightly curled paper close against the stones. "You make the rub." Shibu instructed gently.

Shareef nodded eagerly, instantly understanding what it was that Shibu wished to do.

Shareef turned the stick on its side holding it horizontally, rather than using the sharpened point. He reached up past his slightly shorter brother, and with a gentle downward pull of the charcoal stick, Shareef dragged it along the thin paper with a slow vertical stroke. Shareef worked quickly and carefully, overlapping strokes just so, so that the charcoal could make an accurate record of the finely etched lines that were fired into each of the blue stones along this particular spot in the wall.

It took several minutes, but when Shareef's slow pull of the charcoal reached the bottom left-hand corner of the vellum sheet, as if by magic, a copy of the Eliotropes drawing in stone seem to have been transferred to the paper.

When it was done, Shibu took it carefully, shifting his grip on the paper to hold it for the moment by the corners.

Both of them raced back to Shibu's worktable, where there was a stack of pre-cut wooden shingles, and their companions, short sharp iron pins, each of them made on Shibu's Forge.

In a moment, the charcoal drawing was pinned securely to a Stout shingle of wood, and made much more visible, and portable in the bargain.

"Come on." Shibu urged quietly. "Now that we have our blueprint, we have to meet with our builders." Shibu advised.

"Throne room?" Shareef asked casually.

"Yep-Yep!” Piped Shibu brightly. "If I know the Royal guard, there's a lens maker, and a whole staff of carpenters waiting for us."

"Let's not keep them waiting." Was Shareef's taciturn answer, as he moved only his index finger, copying Shibu's style exactly, and casting a portal in front of both of them.

Both Shibu and Shareef share a smile as the two of them dove headlong into the portal, and found themselves halfway up the long staircase once again in only a heartbeat of time.


	46. Reflection on History

It took Shibu and Shareef only a moment of time to return to the hyperactivity of the Bontarian throne room. No sooner had they walked out of the alcove where their portal had just vanished, then one of the Royal guard walked up to both of them and saluted smartly.

"By your leave, Sir Shibu!" The palace guard said with efficiency. "The artisans and craftsmen you have requested are gathered for your direction, Sir Knight."

Standing beside his brother, Shareef had to smile. There had been precious few occasions in the last few days where Shareef had enjoyed seeing his brother blush! But being addressed by his title always made his uncomplicated brother blush, and the side of his brother slightly rosy cheeks as he spoke brought Shareef back to center in a moment of crisis.

"Very good, thank you Corporal!" Shibu replied, adding a smart salute of his own. "Gather them together in the drawing room on the far side of the throne room." Shibu directed casually, his mind instantly coming up with the space large enough to hold a large group, and yet be able to talk to them and still make his voice heard without shouting his entire plan throughout the palace.

"At your command, Sir Shibu!" The Corporal of the guard replied quickly.

Shibu took a moment to catch his breath, along with his brother.  
"Overall, things are moving well." Shareef observed. "We have expended less than a half an hour, and the tower is already coming together." Shareef continued.

"That much is true." Shibu replied. "But there's another worry which no one has addressed." Shibu said in a somewhat darker tone.  
"And what is that my brother?" Shareef asked urgently.

"Something no King, or commoner can govern." Shibu replied slowly. "Will Mendoza keep his word if he thinks it is to his advantage to break it?" Shibu asked Shareef urgently. "You know this man by reputation, Shareef. What say you?"

Shareef's reply was as quick and feral the sand cat's lethal bite. "Never trust Mendoza, Shibu. Not for anything, at any time. But most especially his treachery will show when he believes he has an advantage that will allow him to win." Shareef advised his brother darkly.

"Like having four hundred men to attack a fortified city?" Shibu asked back just as quickly.

"Definitely."

Shareef's single word of reply said two fingers of cold shooting down Shibu's spine.

"Corporal the guard!" Shibu spoke up in a raised voice.  
Before Shibu could draw another full breath, one of the silver clad armored guards was at his side, like an obedient automaton.

"Corporal, post a detachment of guards to relay reports from the spotter's station on top of the keep." Shibu ordered quickly. "Tell the spotters to raise the alarm, if they should see small boats making for the beach from Mendoza's fleet." Shibu told the armored soldier.

"At your command, Sir Shibu!"

The guard instantly vanished at a fast walk to carry out his orders.

"Thanks brother." Shibu said to Shareef warmly. "We've been so busy thinking about the tower, and how to make it work that we almost forgot to never look away from our opponent."

"Rest assured that Mendoza would use such a moment to his advantage, Shibu. At this moment, if I know Mendoza at all well, he is marshaling his men, and drawing his own plans of attack. In a sense, he still has the advantage of a certain amount of surprise, to which we can only react in the moment." Shareef warned.

"Than for our sake, and for Bonta's, we need to get the tower working in much less time, before Mendoza has a chance to pull anything sneaky, as Felicity would say." Shibu replied. "We no longer have twelve hours, nor have we got eleven and one half. How long do you suppose, Shareef?" Shibu asked his brother urgently.

"For the tower, perhaps four hours at best. For Mendoza, I suspect it will take him about that much time to perfect his plan, arm his crew, and then embark them." Shareef observed, calculating slowly and carefully as he spoke.

"Then we have exactly that much time, and no more." Shibu concluded, the weight of all the unspoken worry he had felt seem to lay itself upon his shoulders as he replied.

"Aye, Shibu. Then let us move as quickly as we can with the time we have. Let us talk with the artisans and craftsmen, so that they can be set to work as soon as is possible."

This time, Shareef took Shibu's hand, and the two of them walked together in a confident stride toward the room just beyond the far side of the throne room.

From the moment that the allied brothers walked into the large oval shaped drawing room that was designed as a meeting room for the King, the atmosphere was as charged as the blue light of wakfu that the brothers hoped to direct.

"Your attention please!" Shibu spoke in a stern, raised voice which immediately took control of the room and the people inside it.

The atmosphere improved somewhat when a good number of the artisans and crafts people recognized Shibu. Shibu had always gone out of his way to make time to work with the artisans and the crafts people of Bonta, in much the same way he had worked with the laborers and craftsmen of his own village while he was growing up. Shibu had learned a good deal from many of the people in the room, who knew him to be a good student, and someone as committed to their labor as he was to his own when it came to quality over quantity.

Shibu took a moment to acknowledge this miles and the waves of greeting he received from a good percentage of the gathered crowd.

But from there, he wasted not a word, nor a moment on the social graces. There was simply no time left except the time they would build together, this time for an entire city, and all its people.  
Shareef and Shibu strode to the front of the room, ascending the small three-step platform upon which the throne was supposed to sit when the King was present in the drawing room. But for now, it was a perfect platform for Shibu and Shareef to address the people who would save Bonta.

"Fellow craftsmen and cutters in the art of wood, Bonta needs you tonight, as we have never needed you before." Shibu addressed the gathering, keeping his words simple, direct and urgent. "We need you to build a unique structure, done in wood and glass, which will help us to defend our city. This new structure will gather reflected light, and turn that light into a beam which will defend Bonta and her shores against the oncoming pirates."

As Shibu spoke to the artisans and craftsmen who knew him better than most, the rest of the group listened, slowly giving more and more attention to the urgent words, and the urgent call upon their craft.

As Shibu was speaking, Shareef took the wooden shingle with the charcoal drawing pinned to it, and began to walk it slowly around the room, showing the overall design to small groups of craftsmen, a few at a time, so that all could consider the labor to be done in the building of the tower.

Shibu paused for a moment, both to rest his voice, and for the gathered artisans and craftsmen in the group he was addressing to have a moment to consider the project at hand. Once Shareef had passed among the close knit group in the drawing room, and everyone had had a chance to see the overall design, Shibu spoke to them once more.

"For artisans and crafters in wood of your skill, the structure should be surprisingly simple." Shibu told them once everyone had seen it. "My people build a structure like this ages ago, and we will build it in the same way now." Shibu explained concisely. "The design itself is made of a standard set of pieces, which are used and placed over and over again to construct the basic framework of the tower.

Once enough of the standard pieces have been fabricated, the tower will practically build itself once these pieces are stacked, jointed, and interconnected." Shibu explained to the artisans.

"These half dozen of standard parts can be produced quickly, using high-quality material, and quick simple methods of carving, which all of us have used to craft all sorts of things made of wood."

"If it is for Bonta, I am willing to labor, and think of money later on." One of the artisans in the gathering called back to Shibu. "But we cannot turn these pieces without material."

"Over the past days, you and your own have worked hard and labored well to restore what was destroyed in the great storm. Together, we also rebuilt the stock of wood and other materials on hand for building." Shibu answered. "The King himself has opened the stocks for our use in this project. All the wood, and every tool we will require shall be given to you to do this work." Shibu told him urgently.

A murmur of sudden surprise and bright conversation rippled through the assembled artisans in the drawing room. The mood of the artisan community was determined and optimistic.

"You know my brother very well, some of you old tree cutters." Shareef took his turn addressing the assembly of craftsmen. "Shibu will draw basic plans for the standard parts, for you to follow, and also to speed your work. For time is important, and those who threaten our city may not allow us all the time that we think we may have. So we must work quickly, and we must work together as we have in the past, and will in the future, once we have built victory from your wood and craftsmanship for Bonta." Shareef told the assembled crowd.

"The frame of the tower should rise quickly, for as you shall see, the framework is simple, and its assembly will be swift." Shibu told the assembled craftsmen. "Once the tower rises, Into it shall be placed very many mirrors, to reflect a unique light, of which the seagoing brigands have been made justifiably afraid." Shibu explained to them. 

Then, Shibu stepped back for a moment, holding the drawing pinned to the shingle out and above his head, so that every eye in the room could see it. As Shibu showed off the master drawing, Shareef took his turn, speaking to the artisans and craftsmen from his heart, even though they did not know him half as well as they knew his illustrious brother.

"No one knows better than I do that Bontarian's are peaceful and friendly people. But these pirates threaten to sack our city, and leave none alive, including your families, and even ourselves. So what you build this night, and what rises in defense of Bonta, will be for your families and your loved ones, as much is for the city which is the capitol of our hearts." Shareef told them in a straightforward and plainspoken voice, the sort that always flowed from his heart when he needed words.

The simple urgency of Shareef's supplication seemed to touch every heart in the room, for a great number of the artisans and crafts people had families to think of in the same way Shareef had thought about his own family as he spoke to them.

Many of those inside the room exchanged surprised glances. No one had warned them of the approaching danger.

But both Shibu and Shareef had learned the same lesson about crafts people, and talented artisans whose life was poured into their work, as much for their own sake, as the sake of others.

Shibu and Shareef both understood that when aroused, those with the skill and exactitude of a beloved craft could be and were, the most formidable of opponents, and the most stalwart of defenders, if there moment came.

That moment had come for the wood cutters and wood crafters of Bonta, and Shareef could tell from the looks in their eyes as he finished speaking to them, that as a group, they were now ready to rise to Shibu's unique challenge. Their only enemy now was time, as much as it was Mendoza's fleet menacing Bonta just off her shore.

"We are ready, Sir Shibu!" One of the elderly carpenters called out loudly. "Show us the job, let us do it together, and by Enutrof, these pirates will never trespass on wood again, not even so much as to build a raft, let alone any ship to suit their evil purposes!"

Shibu and Shareef turned the large table in the drawing room into a worktable, as Shibu sat down with his charcoals and more parchment, and began to draw the basic interlocking parts that would allow the simple tower to come together quickly. He sent Shareef to see Higgins, the best Cooper in all of Bonta, and the man for whom Shibu had cast replacement barrel hoops after the passage of the great storm.

To save precious time, and to keep a secret, Higgins readily agreed to transportation by portal of as many of his largest barrel hoops as he had in stock, with a promise from Shibu that he would replace them one dozen for every one needed for the tower.

The sturdy iron rings placed around the outside of the tower as it was built up would lend strength and stability as the structure grew.

Once each one of them were finished, Shibu's plan drawings were given over to a battery of Bonta's best engineers, to be copied, and passed along to the wood working crews and carpenters who were already building from stout timbers, but who awaited specifications on the unusual joints that would allow the sections of finished wooden beam to snap together as one piece, stronger at the joint than the original wood itself.

Shibu had seen this design in many of his books, so when he had seen it etched in blue light into the stones of the catacombs, it was instantly familiar to him. His own people had used the very same two-piece joint to build everything from simple homes to great buildings, relying on various shapes of holes cut mid way thru one piece of timber to match the same projecting shape carved into the ends of a second timber. Fine measurements allowed the two wooden pieces to be “locked” together without glue, and forming one stout piece where before there had been two!

Shareef watched intently as Shibu laid out the first overall plan for the first tier of the tower, using the same technique. He instantly understood how the wood would come together, building quickly in height and in width, so that the base of the tower would provide the support timbers for the next tier. Shareef was amazed by it all, as his people in the land of the Sands were use to building with stone and mortar, as stout seasoned wood was a rarity in his native land.

Shareef's tension eased considerably once he saw the simple brilliance of Shibu's intended design. His happiness was amplified as he saw the faces of the woodworkers who would have to do the labor of making the joints. To each one of the old hands, this joint was as familiar to them as the names of their children, and it was work that could be done quickly and over and over again by experienced hands that could work by reflex, as well as from experience. The technique brought together the best parts of age and experience to work for Bonta.

Shibu rapidly produced seven drawings. Most of them requiring solid, straight beams, requiring little bending, or shaping of the wood, as that would increase the amount of time required for the building.  
Shibu had an epiphany himself as it came to working out the very top of the tower, where both the diamond would be set, and the great lens Shibu would need could be made to pivot. Rather than make the top of the tower itself out of hardwoods, Shibu saw it being woven, from rattan and wicker, two materials well known to every basket maker in Bonta. It would be far simpler, and take much less time to simply cut a hole in the bottom of the basket, and then to invert the basket, and support the lens inside of an insert made of soft wood, whose brass fittings would allow the lens itself to be rotated by brass screws turned with a simple pressure of the fingers. The design was so simple that when he came upon it, Shibu gasped. It would be safe, because the wicker itself could be sealed against heat with amber resin, which was also a commodity traded by Bonta. Once the wicker was lashed securely to the great square beams that made up the framework of the tower, The tower would have a gold color dome, lit from behind and below by the blue light of wakfu!

Once Shibu's last drawing was finished, and he had asked the weavers to form the soft dome for the top of the tower, Shibu considered the mounting of the mirrors.

Bonta was fortunate once again to have a large community of craftsmen with skill in the art of glass, so handling large numbers of mirrors was nothing new to them.

On each interior face of the octagonal tower, a large adjustable mirror would be mounted in a frame made of lighter wood, each frame moving laterally within a larger frame, so that each of the facing mirrors could be tilted upward, according to the angle of reflection.  
The elders who had worked with mirrored glass, and the magic of reflection all their lives understood immediately what was wanted, so the many beams coming from the column where they were split could be reflected out of the top of the tower, through the diamond, through the lens, and then upward into the night sky over Bonta.

Some of the elders had become expert at using reflection for misdirection in simple magic done on the stage. These men in particular brightened, and some even laughed, in a good-natured way that their own magical art was being used to bedevil the brigands who meant evil for their city. With their cooperation assured, and the great stock of fifty full length mirrors donated by the people of Bonta being put to good use, the construction process was well underway. 

Five minutes later, the first of the builders and carpenters met with the unique wooden pieces on the top of Shibu's tower to begin the assembly of the tower framework. Just under an hour of time had passed, leaving the defenders of Bonta something less than three hours to finish their work, to attune, aim, and ready the tower and its multifaceted lens for use. Bontarian spotters reported no activity from Mendoza's fleet since the longboat had returned almost an hour before to the Black Swan.

But while Shibu and Shareef brought together their technological miracle, King Louis had other things on his mind. He believed that the tower would work, and that the Pirates would not attack. But King Louis had not been so many years upon the throne that he would allow Bonta to be ill-prepared for the unforeseen, and unexpected.

Even as good reports of the tower's progress were repeated to him, King Louis's mind turned increasingly to what would happen if some, but not all of Mendoza's force reached the beach, and pressed an attack upon Bonta Castle. For this eventuality, Louis' mind turned first to the best troops at his disposal, and the monarch of Bonta sent also for Cici, the Captain and leader of the Cra detachment.


	47. Regal Plans

For a Cra, receiving a message by arrow was as common as the starlight that guided them through the night sky.

But even Cici was caught slightly off guard when the arrow of recall she touched instantly transported her to one of the many smaller rooms not far distant from the central throne room of Bonta.

This particular room was a small, almost intimate reading room and library, reserved for the King, nobles, and courtiers.

But tonight, the room seemed to be filled to overflowing with a single important presence.

For his part, Louis had become so used to seeingn people come and go via the mystical system of recall arrow that he took Cici's appearance in the small room, only a step or two in front of him, completely in stride.

"Good evening, Cici." The king said casually. "How stand matters with the Cra detachment?" The king asked pointedly, as Cici automatically dropped to one knee before the King.

"Your Majesty, we stand ready if the worst may come. Our ranks number one hundred and fifty-three, including myself and Sirs Shibu and Shareef." Cici reported instantly and accurately.

"Nearly eight score." The King considered aloud. "In my younger days, during the siege, you will know that we had only eight." The king remarked offhandedly. "Now things are twenty times to our advantage, and glad we are of it."

"Thank you sire." Cici replied simply and without any trace of courtly formality beyond simple respect. "Although from what I see, and the rumors I have heard, I would that we had eight hundred, rather than eight score." Cici replied speaking honestly.

"You have doubtless heard and seen of the tower and reflector designed and fabricated by your brothers, have you not?" The king asked simply.

Both of them already knew the answer. Cici was Cra to the soles of her boots, and up to the peak of her cap. As commander of the Garrison, there was almost nothing that she did not know about, and no whisper of rumor missed her sharp ears, anymore than a well aimed arrow ever missed its target.

"Yes sire." Word of its building has swept through the Garrison, and we are all bright with hope that the skills of my brothers may prevent the effusion of much blood." Cici replied.

"It is on that score, dearest Cici, that you and I must speak. Not as King to ally, but first and always as friends who care for one another." King Louis told Cici as she came to her feet in front of the King, and he motioned her gently into one of the overstuffed chairs opposite his own.

"I too share your hope that Shibu and Shareef have given Bonta the means to equalize the uneven battle which may lay ahead." Louis told her quietly. "But you will understand almost better than any other that we must have alternative plans in case the tower does not work as expected."

"Naturally, S nmnmire." Cici replied.

"What I must know from you now is your honest assessment of how long we can resist if Mendoza comes with his full complement of brigands. That will be full twenty score, and every one of the four hundred out for blood, as Mendoza has vowed to put the city to the sword if he is forced to reduce us by storm." King Louis told the redheaded Archer frankly.

"Verily, your highness, it seems we pass from one storm to another." Cici observed quietly as she considered the question in her military mind.

"Twenty score men, concentrating their attack upon one face of the castle." Cici considered, thinking out loud. "Much will depend on how many of Mendoza ships will be able to come close enough to lend their cannons to shore bombardment, your highness." Cici said, sparing the King no fact she considered.

"I have never forgotten the siege I survived in this very castle as a younger man." The King answered quickly. "By the time we were relieved in the fourth month, there was scarcely one white stone atop another remaining of the old Castle. Nearly everything but the keep was taken down, but that took four months of cannonade, from batteries well set upon the land." King Louis remembered.

"The enemy must not be permitted to bring any guns ashore, sire." Cici considered aloud. "Here, we have the advantage in this time, and in this version of the castle." Cici weighed her words carefully as she spoke. "Our archers, as sheltered as they now are, in places around the castle and keep would quickly eliminate any artillery emplacement, unless they be dug in to the ground, and that would take several days, and several nights, which we would not permit them to enjoy." Cici told the monarch of Bonta, speaking as honestly now as she had before.

"Mendoza is a man of the sea, according to my brother Shareef. But he's counting on his numbers for an overwhelming advantage to his attack. Shareef tells me that most of the men in his crew have never come up against a fortified city like Bonta, with her walls held by mobile ranks of archers." Cici related, by way of explaining her own thoughts on strategy for the battle to come. "Cra strategy will be simple, and direct, your highness. When a point along the walls is attacked, one of four wings of fifty archers each will move to that point, and answer any attempt to surmount the walls." Cici told the King. "We shall make our numbers seem greater still by moving around, and not standing in stationary ranks to be shot at by those trying to climb up. Mobility and flexibility will be our greatest strength, sire."

"Wonderful, Cici!" The king replied with admiration in his voice. "I expected nothing less from the Rangers." The king replied. "But I must ask you directly. "Can you hold them at the walls if they come in force?" King Louis asked, more dread creeping into his voice as he feared the honest answer Cici would give, and the cost it would bring to the Cra themselves.

"By the faith of Cra, and the strength of the clothyard shaft, sire, I believe that we can hold the initial assault." Cici answered seriously, sparing the King nothing including the truth.

"Matters may become worse if a portion of Mendoza's men gain some foothold within the castle itself, but then, we shall have the castle as an ally to fight for us, and to make their costs far greater than our number." Cici remarked, considering the worst situation along with the best, and holding nothing back, as usual.

"All right. Thank you Cici." I must talk to the Royal guard company within the hour. I will not spare them from the truth of the situation, as you would not spare your own in the same situation." King Louis replied.

"For Bonta, and freedom, your Majesty." Cici replied, once again dropping to one knee before the King. "Will there be anything else your Majesty?" Cici asked, this time summoning up a touch of the polished manners required at the Royal Court.

"I realize that time presses in upon us, Cici. But there is one more matter of which we must speak." King Louis replied.

"What is your will, your Majesty?" Cici asked in return.

"This is far more personal than tactical, Cici."

As he spoke, King Louis motioned Cici back into the overstuffed chair where she had been sitting moment before.

"Ask and consider it done, your highness." Cici replied in her best courtly manners.

"Cici, if the very worst happens, and we be overrun, I look to you to see to the safety of your brothers, and of Lady Felice. At the last, if the battle be beyond hope, collect the family in whom we have come to care so much, and take them to safety, along with yourself."

"Your Majesty, I--" Cici raised her voice slightly by way of interruption, but a wave of Louis's hand quieted her at once.

"I know, I know, Cici." The king replied gently but firmly. "But here us out. This is a matter of strategy as well as personal involvement for us."

"Yes sire, forgive me." Cici said with a touch of contrition.

"The city of Bonta is not the whole of our kingdom. But if she falls, all of our lands will be pray to these brigands, and they intend sparing no one or nothing." King Louis began. "I understand that it will be the hardest thing I have ever asked of all of you, but the four of you are the best hope for Bonta. If the white city should fall, I pass to you four the leadership of the resistance, and the preservation of the balance of our kingdom, along with it subjects."

King Louis told Cici bluntly. "You can form the militia, and lead them in a fight back to defend our land, until the brigands are a spent force, and you can reclaim and rebuild Bonta as needs must, if we fall here." The King continued, speaking directly from one warrior to another, with a firm and final tone that Cici could well understand.

"If those be your Majesty's wishes, at the last, if it comes, I swear by Cra to heed your command." Cici replied firmly, knocking down the sudden swell of emotion from inside her, the way a well-placed arrow could bring down a rabbit.

"Very well, Commander Cici." The King said at last. "We will fight here to the end of our strength, but in wartime, it is best to be prepared both for victory, and for defeat. A King, and the leader of his people must think and act sometimes in different ways."

"Indeed, sire." Cici replied.

"Now there be only one thing remaining." King Louis went on. "This one not for Louis IV of Bonta, but one who seeks advice from a friend, to a friend." King Louis said, speaking far more gently and in a more familiar way then he had ever spoken to Cici before.

"Please, Louis, anything I may do." Cici replied, as the monarch before her became more of the sweet and gentle figure of respect whom Cici had always admired.

"I need to ask your opinion on something, Cici. It's about Felice, and the boys too." King Louis began, with a slight uncertain tremor in his voice as he spoke. "This has not to do with war, but instead, with its opposite. Can you spare me another moment, on this night of all nights?"

"There is no place I would rather be than one that centers like a target on my family." Cici replied, bringing a touch of poetry to her words, as she took Louis' hands and held them gently but firmly in her own.

Now Louis sat forward in his chair, reaching out to take Cici's hands gently in his own, before he drew a deep breath, and began to unburden his heart.

* * *

Shibu's light concentration was unexpectedly broken when he felt a familiar and intimate tug on his own red and silver sleeve.  
Even under the oppressive circumstances of the moment, Shibu brightened noticeably as he saw his own brother's smile looking back at him.

"Hey brother, how's it going up above?" Shibu wanted to know urgently as he carefully put down what was left of his charcoal stick, and gently edge the parchment he was working on to one side, so that it wouldn't get smudged.

"My handsome Shibu, you must come up top with me, and see your own vision rising. It is like nothing I have ever dreamed, and the elders working on the project with the help of the young is a sight that must be seen. Everyone is amazed when what they do together works so very well, and just as you have foreseen it!" Shareef replied with a trace of irrepressible natural excitement that bubbled up from him whenever he was a part of something new.

Shareef went so far as to take Shibu's hands in his own once they were empty, although they were still lightly blackened in spots with charcoal dust. Soon after their first touch in a long while for both brothers, they shared hands with the same set of slightly glossy black smudges. Yet, as Shibu led himself be pulled to his feet ever so gently, he relished the pure look of adoration that flowed from Shareef's green eyes as the two looked at each other.

This time there was no need for them to hide away before Shibu moved his fingers casually, opening a familiar portal, through which both of them stepped. A moment later, both of them were surrounded by the rapidly cooling night air.

The weather was good, nature herself seeming to grant Bonta clear skies, and the flat calm seas which made up for endless days of storm tossed weather.

Both Shibu and Shareef granted themselves a moment to stand out in the open at the very top of the tower they called home. They let the night breezes ripple through two sets of red and silver silks., Their shared red and silver dress made them look all the more like twin personas, even though the slightest discerning glance would make Shareef's vibrant green eyes and pure white hair all the more noticeable beneath the matching two color outfits.

Both brothers found themselves enjoying the moment so much that it took a gentle tap from Shareef to direct Shibu's vision to the work which now filled a majority of the top deck of their tower.  
Shibu saw it, he knew the placement of every wooden pin, and every brass fastener into which the diamond loaned them by the King would be set.

But Shibu still felt his breath leave his body, as his own heart raced. For him, the site of the tower was a page in history of the Eliotrope people, being reenacted, and reconstructed in the modern day.

"See brother, is it not wondrous to behold?" Shareef asked, as equally breathless as the seeming twin who stood beside him. "Remember this moment, because this night, the technology and artistry of our people comes to this world once more, and all because of my wondrous brother." Shareef complemented. He was close enough to Shibu to actually feel the heat coming from Shibu's reddening cheeks. And for the first time in what seemed like forever, Shareef actually saw Shibu smile.

The eight sided tower, built of solid square beams of heavy wood, and reinforced every 10 feet with a double set of iron hoops look like a natural extension to the observatory which the top of the tower had always been intended to be.

The first three tiers of the tower had been built, and were helping to support the fourth, as the basic framework of the unique edifice came together quickly, in sections which seemed to want to be together, under the direction of elder craftsman who knew precisely what was called for, and how it should feel when it was done correctly.

The major timbers which made up each of the octagonal sides also served as solid steps up for those working to raise the next tier of the building.

Shibu watched with fascination, as the artisans and glassblowers moved in as the building teams climbed upward, leaving the artisans who worked with glass to emplace the mirrors into the tilting frameworks, which seem to snap into the square spaces left in the bracing timbers by the seeming magic of the design. Once emplaced, the tilt and angle of each mere was tested, both by eye, and the reflection of the stump of a candle, placed in the spot where each successive beam splitter would be once the framework was finished and made to be reflectors.

Shibu's wonder at the ease and graceful rise of something from his own people touched him deeply. Almost to the point where he found it difficult to speak, as he watched other craftsmen bring his own design into being. But Shibu was not so overtaken with himself, nor with the construction at hand that he had given up a sense of the urgency that required its construction.

"Any word from the spotters on the keep about Mendoza's fleet?" Shibu forced himself to ask, somewhat brutally breaking the spell of the wondrous structure rising before his vision.

"The spotters are working relays, so that no eye becomes strained, nor tired in its vision, my brother. Their reports by flag tell us that nothing is moving among Mendoza's fleet, and that all his ships, including his black swan are anchored just far enough out to sea to avoid cannons fired from the highest points of the city." Shareef replied with a solid certainty that made Shibu feel instantly more at ease.

"Very well." Shibu replied, his taciturn speech becoming slightly vacant as he looked again toward the framework of the tower, which seem to beginning height and width almost by the moment, as Bonta's artisans brought together Shibu's ancient design.

Shareef saw the look in his brother's eyes, and took hold of Shibu's hand, in part to break the spell which the site of the tower cast over the two Eliotropes.

"I think our people would be most proud of us, brother Shibu." Shareef observed quietly as he too took in the wondrous sight of the tower. "Tonight, all their work rises with all our hopes. It is a good thing, my brother Shibu. And you have brought it to be. Tonight, our people are legends no more, for we have brought something of ourselves, and of our own into this world which has taken us in.

Tonight, perhaps for the first time in a thousand years, Eliotropes will help to defend a place that belongs to them, is much as to any other race here gathered." Shareef observed. "You realize, that when all of this is done, and Bonta be safe and secure, it is you who will write the books, rather than simply reading them." Shareef added, nudging his brother gently, and showing the smile that always turned Shibu's heart into a flowing cup of melted wax.

Shibu's relief also showed on his face and in his own blue eyes. He had worried almost endlessly that something in the design was wrong, or lacking in some way. But as he saw many sets of experienced hands working together with the parts he had seen, and sketched, that worry left him, never to return.

The framework would be finished within the quarter of an hour. It solid nature was made true and real as the solid wood building now supported the weight of better than twenty craftsman, usually working in teams of two, or four. Now they were working on the fourth, and topmost tier, where the construction of the framework was finished by capping and joining each of the eight sides by one final wooden beam which showed square holes, each larger than two fists together, ready to slip down onto square shapes which pointed upward, ready to fill the large holes in the massive beams, and put a finished edge on the top of the tower itself.

Each beam, when gently emplaced, was met by a solid knock from a heavy but padded hammer, which delivered the force of the blow without marring the wood, as each of the topmost beams seem to slip gently into the place and space for which it had been fashioned.  
Although it seemed to disappear in the solid vision of the ancient building, there was in fact a light scaffolding built roundabout the new and solid wooden tower. 

As the top of each tier was finished, the woodworkers would scramble up or down, to make way for another crew which were tied by safety ropes to the scaffolding itself.

These were Bonta's coopers, crafts people whose entire life and soul was working in wood, and making implements of every kind from it, including the massive casks and huge barrels which held every commodity that Bonta sent to sea for trade. But now their craftsmanship was of a different nature, as the fitting crew help to slide iron hoops into place around the circumference of the tower, helping to support the wooden structure, and helping to focus its weight downward into its wooden base as it rose higher into the Bontarian night.

The great iron rings were set into place with such exacting precision that the holes in the iron hoops exactly matched those bored seemingly at random into the outside face of some of the huge square beams from which the tower was made.

Most of the barrel makers were as fascinated as the Eliotrope brothers as they discovered Shibu's design had been so exacting that the hoops themselves fit so close on to the wood that the traditional wooden pegs were scarcely more than plugs for the holes in the wood that matched exactly to the iron rings!

Granted the extra stability and support of the iron rings, the tower was, in a sense, locked in, becoming a more permanent structure rather than one made only of close fitting wooden parts.

Everyone working around the tower, and on top of it, who had made way for the last hoop broke out in the cascade of light applause and friendly whistles as the last step in Shibu's drawn plans came to fruition, and the wood and iron edifice became a permanent addition to the Bontarian skyline.

"You see brother?" Shareef asked with a renewed jolt of excitement as the framework was declared finished, and the woodworkers climbed down off of the tower, to give the crew in placing the mirrors full room to work.

Shibu smiled once again, giving his brother another moment of pure pleasure as the architect and his assistant stood near the base of the new tower, watching the mirrors dazzle slightly in the low evening light as they were set into place in their frames around each of the building's eight sides.

But as he stood beside Shareef, openly admiring the execution of the ancient design borrowed from his people, Shibu felt a new twinge of worry invade his mind.

"Shareef, please contact the spotters." Shibu said quietly to his brother, not wanting to spoil the moment of success for those who had labored so long and well to bring the tower to be.

"Just as we can see this, so can Mendoza. And we must allow that he is watching us as we are watching him." Shibu said quietly.

"Right away, Shibu." Came Shareef's taciturn answer. Shibu watched with another trace of satisfaction, as Shareef portaled from where he stood to near the edge of the roof of the tower that had the best view of the keep.

Shibu picked up a single blue flag and held it up and out, so that the material could catch the rising night breeze before Shareef waved it vigorously in a tight circle above his head, signaling the keep quickly, with a gesture whose meaning might be missed by the lookouts in the crows nests of Mendoza's fleet.

In a harbinger of hopeful things to come, the towers reply came not by flag, which could be seen and read by Mendoza's fleet, but by the candlelit flash of a small mirror set inside the body of a lantern.

Two quick pulses of light, white this time, rather than blue for the moment delivered the coded message that nothing had changed which could be seen among Mendoza's fleet.

As he watched a double flash come back to him, Shareef felt the welcome touch of relief. Time it seemed was still Bonta's ally rather than Mendoza's friend.

In a gesture done more by reflex than thought, Shareef portaled back to Shibu side, standing so close to his brother that the two of them could share a whisper and not be overheard.

"Our luck still holds, my brother." Shareef replied. "But I would bet Captain Soames sea chest on the fact that they are planning something, and that something will come before dawn, as the buccaneer considers both the darkness, and the sleepiness of his opponents to be his allies, as time still seems to be ours." Shareef cautioned.

Shibu nodded tightly.

There was a tall and stately clock in the drawing room where Shibu worked. The clock was made of wood and glass, the gears of the movement and the pendulum visible to the eye in the dark cabinet made of a lustrous red wood.

As Shibu had copied the drawings for the artisans, the rhythm of the clock and the time it represented had settled so upon his mind that he began to count. So now standing looking out to sea, Shibu's own count now told him that the defenders of Bonta had perhaps two hours before the full darkness of night settled upon the city by the sea, and onto the menacing ships anchored just beyond the reach of Bonta's largest cannons. All perhaps, thought Shibu to himself, save one.


	48. Beyond the Price of Diamonds

Standing together on the top of the tower that was their home, Shibu and Shareef watched with increasing wonder as the last part of Shibu's design arrived right on schedule.

This was actually the portion of the tower that required the most work, for finding a big enough basket to cover the top of the tower proved more of a challenge than some of the weavers had thought. In the end they had simply come together as a group and between them.

Over the course of time, they simply wove the basket that was needed, in part so that the hole in the basket would not have to be cut, but was naturally woven into the shape of the basket. As the weavers arrived with their contribution to the project they were still excited overseeing their creation dipped into, and then painted with the Amber resin which turned the fibers of the basket and it's unique opening more into a bowl made of gold and glass than of a basket woven of simple rattan.

Shibu admired the work of the weavers, for their labor had been as exacting and well executed as the labor of the woodcarvers, or the work from the lens maker, which was still to come. The weavers exactitude had extended to the small holes which pass through in pairs along the folded over rim of the basket. The extra fold gave the edge of the now Golden basket an extra measure of strength so it could be lashed down securely to the wide timbers that formed the top of the tower structure. Here and there, the best of the woodcutter's and carpenters length the weavers a hand, lacing the wrong strips of rough fiber through and around the large square beams that made up the tower. The final knots to secure the glassine top of the tower itself wearing the diamond would sit were tied by the Mistress Weaver, chief elder in chief and experience among the weavers guild to Bonta.

With their contribution secured as it was gratefully received, the eldest from the weavers field voice to wish to remain and see the final part of the reflective inner workings of the tower put into place. The final part of the mechanical workings for the ancient tower consistent of a single long pole, divided into two sections with the unique joint in the middle, which permitted the entire length of the pole to reach from the floor of the tower up to the top of the last tier, just below where the diamond itself would be placed.

Shibu found himself watching with quiet satisfaction as the gradually more complex parts for the mechanics of the tower arrived on site, and came together with the same perfection that had marked the work on the tower itself. The elder weavers were all standing back a ways from the tower, admiring the view both of the tower itself, and the high place that the top of Shibu's tower represented. Some of the elders had never seen so far out to sea since the days of their youth, and seeing far off into the water seemed to restore the spirits drained by the demanding nature of the work they had done as their contribution to saving the city and the kingdom.

When the elderly lens maker arrived, Shibu himself was so excited that he thought that the elderly master of prisms should have been welcomed with a full fanfare. For here was the artisan who made every pair of glasses worn by every citizen in the city of Bonta. His singular skill with lenses was renowned throughout the city, and as soon as his own sharp eyes understood what it was that Shibu wanted to do by multiplying a single beam of light split over and over again, the idea and its accomplishment were simple and direct to the lens maker as building the tower or weaving the basket had been to the carpenters and weavers. The elderly man who had made the light wire-rimmed glasses for the King himself carried with him a small shoulder bag crafted a fine leather, and slung across his shoulders and neck by a long strap of fine softer leather.

In his hands with some difficulty, the elderly oculist also carried too long sections of poles, which were instantly as familiar to Shibu as his own fingers.

Both Shibu and Shareef hurried to relieve the lens maker of his major burden, and working together the two brothers joined the sections of pole into the longer shaft which would do the work of supporting the small mirrored cubes which would divide the beam of light, and allow its reflections cast by the mirrors around the octagonal inside of the tower to be shot through the diamond lens, and allow the reflection to pass through the lens which would magnify it before many smaller beams of light were cast upward into the night sky from the tower.

Within the precincts of the tower, Shareef stood back ready to help as Shibu carried the long pole for the beam splitters into the tower horizontally, supporting it across his broad shoulders. At the center of the base upon which the tower had been erected there was another single, and purposed formed hole in the base, which took the diameter of the shaft, in which locked that shaft into place with an extra quarter turn when what looked like a long wooden mast was in the correct place at last.

The Lens maker watched the entire procedure with his own look of surprise and wonder, as he, like many in Bonta, had seen only their particular part of the entire construction project.  
Now here it was, almost altogether at last, lacking only the parts that the lens maker had brought held safely in a sturdy case that traveled inside the watchmaker's shoulder bag.

The elderly crafsman who was responsible for the Royal glasses took the same measured pride and care in producing the case from the leather bag, and laying it ever so gently upon the short length of the table where Shibu worked near the base of the tower  
Shibu found his own fingers shaking slightly with anticipation as he opened the twin catches on the case, so he could get his first full look at what exactly the lens maker had done was Shibu's design.  
As he opened the case and laid back the lid gently, Shibu gasped for the second time this night, when his own mirrored blue eyes saw their own light reflected in each of four of what seemed at first glance like gems in their own right, but were in reality small cubes made of the purest crystal and finest glass.

Shibu needed no one to tell him that the lens makers understanding and execution of the design for the beam splitters was absolutely perfect in its own fine execution.

Shibu knew better than to touch, but looking was more than enough for the moment, as the shimmer of these four splitters, exposed as they were now to the clear star filled sky, they caught the starlight itself, and split it into four perfect examples of the color spectrum. This remarkable sight proved the worth when workability of the splitters themselves, and gave Shibu another site that he would never forget as long as he lived.

Placing the small reflective wonders was the happy task of the lens maker who had fashioned them, as he treated each of them like a large precious stone, each of them perhaps a cousin to the perfect diamond that would crown the tower as a primary reflector.

Rather than have the elderly lens maker climb up and over the structure of the tower with the mirrors now in place, Shibu portaled to reach each of the beam splitters up to the perfect spot on each tier. This allowed the small reflective cube to be mounted precisely to a small shaped cutout which was a small flat spot on the round reflector shaft. 

Shibu found that he was able to set them in place with no more than the most delicate fingertip pressure. For Shibu it was just like handling the eggs he loved to collect so much for his own favorite breakfast. The individual reflectors for each of the four tears fit into their places with hardly any more effort than it took Shibu to cast the portals ascending the tower.

Now at the top of the tower, Shibu took the last and perhaps the most complex part of the tower itself from its special niche in the lining of the jewelers case.

Shibu had to pause for just a moment, to catch his breath and so that he could have a steady hand as he fit the custom-made holder for the King's diamond into place, supported by the bottom of the shaft, the unique shaped cup would allow the diamond to be turned independently and inclined to unique angles to achieve the proper degree of reflection and refraction that was needed for the multiple beams to be seen emanating from the tower.

Once the custom holder was in place, fitted to the top of the reflector shaft and held in place by the same suspension lines which lashed down the top of the tower, Shibu paused, and called down from nearly the apex of the tower, indicating that Shareef should join him.

Shareef had been a careful observer through the entire process of mounting the reflectors, and when he saw the custom mounting for the Kings diamond lens, Shareef understood that a very special moment was close at hand. With the thought that required almost no work, Shareef cast his own portal, and in a moment he was standing beside Shibu, who was sitting casually on one of the broad beams which made up the top of the tower. As soon as Shareef arrived, and sat down beside him, Shibu moved to take the diamond King Louis had given him, and to set the stone itself into the holder which had been crafted for it. Shareef could not help but notice that his brothers fingers trembled just slightly as Shibu set the most perfect stone in all Bonta, and perhaps in the entire world of the twelve, into its place at the apex of the tower which he had designed.

Shibu paused once more to catch his breath, and then took the very last piece of his own design from the lens makers case.

The lens for the round oculus in the Golden Dome below which the diamond seem to float in free space was as perfect a piece of machined crystal as Shibu had ever beheld. In a way, the singular lens was itself as perfect as the diamond below it was flawless. But this lens had been ground by the activity of craftsman, and not by the action and limitless time of nature. 

So Shibu found himself slightly nervous again for just a moment as he reached up, and mounted the lens for the oculus into another piece of the wooden frame that exactly matched the size of the hole in the inverted basket covered with amber resin. In just one more moment of tension, Shibu's tower was complete, having received the gym which was its heart and soul of purpose.

Shibu took an extra long, slow moment to double check everything with the design whose impression had been almost indelibly stamped upon his memory.

Everything was correct, down to the smallest detail that Shibu had specified in the unique set of drawings he had done specifically for the lens maker.

There, at the top of what had become the unintentionally tallest structure in the city of Bonta, Shibu allowed one whispered word, directed at his brother to pass his lips.

If he lived to be five hundred years old, Shareef would never forget the look of pure satisfaction and relief in Shibu's blue eyes as he looked toward Shareef and whispered "Perfect!"

"Ready for first test, my brother?" Shareef asked Shibu gently. He didn't want to take from his brother that singular moment of satisfaction that Shibu had worked so hard to earn. But Shareef's mind was also the practical mind, and he understood that without testing as a final proof of the theory behind the tower, the entire enterprise was still just an unproven dream in the face of an enemy who might be upon them at any moment.

Shibu's reply was to reach over across the space of the crossbeam where he was sitting, and hug Shareef gently, so his white haired brother could share in the sensation of satisfaction and accomplishment.

"Ready whenever you are, Shareef." Shibu replied, his steady voice returning on a strong tone of confidence that was also reflected in his clear blue eyes.

But the brothers had a more pressing problem for the moment. They had portaled to to the top of the tower, when it was still largely air and open space. But with the optics, and most importantly the large diamond and the lens in place, that space had filled up quickly with mechanisms that were varied, and very sensitive to vibration. So coming down from the top of the tower proved to be a much more ticklish problem than surmounting the tower in the first place.  
The two brothers had spent hours of free time in and around their white city free climbing some of the largest and most ancient trees in the World of the Twelve. Now, climbing down on through and around beams made of some of the same wood became a moment of recreation for the two of them!

Shibu and Shareef were giggling happily as they slid along and climbed down the tower on the solid beams that made up the eight sided building. By the time their feet touched the floor again, this time entirely without the aid of a portal, Shibu and Shareef were laughing so hard at one another that both of them could barely stand up. The two brothers help one another to stand steady and catch their breath between them as the insides of the tower echoed with the soft music of their laughter.

But that laughter faded only a moment later, when both Shibu and Shareef saw the serious expression on the face of one of the Royal Guards, who was now standing just inside the main entrance to the tower, evidently waiting for the two brothers to come down.

Shibu's face fell as quickly as the echoes of the laughter died within the multifaceted tower.

"What is it, Captain?" Shibu inquired of the guard, his face in his voice suddenly turning serious, along with his voice that became a more subdued whisper.

"Spotters report from the keep, Sir Shibu." The guard replied quickly, also managing a salute, which Shareef returned as his brother spoke. "Boats Sir, fifteen in all, making way from the fleet offshore toward the beach. Estimated landing in approximately 10 to 15 minutes, Sir."

For Shibu, it was as if some malicious vandal had suddenly walked into the tower with a single brick, and shattered every mirror emplaced around the octagonal tower. Shareef saw the hope and the excitement of the moment reflected in his brother's eyes shatter exactly like the broken glass that the vandalize mirrors might leave behind.

Suddenly, Bonta's best and only hope seemed to be as far distant as the stars that Shibu could look upward through the oculus and identify in the clear night sky.

"Thank you Captain." Shibu replied quietly, his voice dropping into an icy cold whisper. "Inform the palace, and the Cra detachment as quickly as possible. Inform the Royal guard to prepare to repel a direct assault upon the Palace." Shibu added quietly, not quite meaning to make it sound like an afterthought.

"By your command, Sir Shibu. Long live Bonta.”

Once the captain of the guard had gone on His Way, Shibu and Shareef exchanged urgent looks.

"You stay brother." Shareef told Shibu quickly. "Let me go with the guard, and with the Cra. These are men of the sea, and no one knows how they will fight better than I do." Shareef urged quietly.  
Shibu shook his head. "I'm a Knight of the Realm. Both the Royal Guard and the Cra will expect to see me, and I need to be there with them and for them." Shibu responded.

"No brother. Listen well to me. This tower of yours is Bonta's best hope. No one in this world knows better than you how it should work, and no one else has the mind to set it to working right, and at the right time. You must be here to make our best hope work. Between us, with a little help from the Sand Cat, I can help hold off the brigands, and give you the time you need to make our best hope work for all of us." Shareef answered his brother with a note of defiance mixed with the inevitable logic. 

To punctuate his point, Shareef reached over and took Shibu's hands in his own, giving them a reassuring squeeze. "I believe in you with all my heart. I believe I hold in my hands the hands which will save us." Shareef told Shibu quietly. "Nothing I have ever done means to me so much as this. And nothing hurts me more than to leave your side at a moment like this. It breaks the promise that I made you. And I would rather sell my heart one hundred times for blood then break a promise to you, my sweet Shibu. But these are extraordinary times, and now at last, we who are common must rise to extraordinary deeds." Shareef told his brother. "That is why I will go, and you must remain. You alone can give us the blue light that will make the tower work."

Shareef fell silent, and for a long moment no word at all passed between them, until Shibu nodded slowly, as if it gave him great pain to do so.

"Shareef?"

"Yes my wonderful brother?"

"Stay close to Cici. Before tonight's over, the Cra detachment may need to both see and feel the power of the Sand Cat." Shibu advised carefully.

"I so promise, brother Shibu." Shareef replied, because that was all his emotions would allow him to say.

"When we are successful here, all of Bonta will know of it by the light from the tower." Shibu told his brother quietly. "If we fail here, I will come find you and Cici, and we will make our stand together."

"Bonta's stand will be seen in dozens of beams of light, emanating from this place, the brilliance of your idea, and a diamond royal." Shareef answered, borrowing a bit of his brother's confidence to lift Shibu's spirits in turn.

"As much as it hurts both of us for a moment of time, my sweet Shareef. We must part to do the jobs we have been given." Shibu told his brother as he took Shareef into his arms and hugged him close.

"I shall see you again this night beneath a brilliant column of light, my sweetest brother. For now, I go to make my fight, one I should've made a very long time ago, but have only found the courage to make this very night, in the sight of what you have done." Shareef told his brother quietly, before Shareef moved his fingers, in Shibu's style, casting a single portal before them.

"I shall love you forever and always, my sweet Shibu."

Before Shibu could think of any reply, Shareef was gone through the portal, and the portal itself was gone as well.

It took all the energy that Shibu thought he could muster a moment before, for the Eliotrope to walk back into the tower he had constructed, his hands glowing with the blue energy as he walked toward a specially built doorway in the framework from which Shibu could project his own Wakfu into the tower, providing the first blue beam to be split into many, and from there hopefully cast upward into the dark and star-filled night sky.


	49. Rise of the Diamond Dragon

Shareef moved at the quickstep, and found himself sandwiched between two squads of the Royal guard.

The unit as a whole made quick time, Shareef was unrestrained by any sort of military discipline, and as he walked along with the guard, keeping pace with them, Shareef was surprised to find his fear driven from his mind completely by another emotion altogether.

Anger.

It was as pure and as forceful as anything Shareef had permitted himself to feel in a long time. But it grew with every step he took, until each of the steps became bolder and bolder, each more purpose driven than the step before it.

Long before they reached the end of the long passageway which led upward into the castle keep, Shareef was out in front of the two squads,pressing a fast and determined walk, fuel not only by his anger, but by something else which surprised him even more than the strength of his singular emotion.

Shareef was growling.

It wasn't the passive sort of noise made at the back of the throat, and crushed into a whisper to hide the nature and the sound of another honest emotion.

He could feel the Sand Vat now, sleek, menacing, and more powerful than he had ever manifested before. Shareef's heart seem to be pumping an alien fluid which ran alternately hot and then cold throughout his body.

He became faintly aware that the fists clenched hard at his sides were opening and closing slightly with every step that he took, and his inner vision was filled with the spectacle of the huge, muscular Sand Cat flexing his formidable paws to show four inch claws.

Shareef felt the cat's ears lay back, even though his could not, along with something that he very nearly could do. A quick, almost fluid stride came to him, and Shareef felt the rest of his body tense, as if to leap up the remainder of the long passageway that connected Shibu's tower to the rest of the castle. 

So intent had Shareef's focus become that he did not notice the troops who seem to be walking alongside him suddenly stop, and once Shareef had passed beyond the ranks, the detachment of the Royal Guard turned to form two parallel lines across the tunnel leading to the castle. The first rank knelt where they stood, with the second rank standing behind them.

One glance told Shareef what their purpose was, and the tactical position they took up blocking the tunnel also told him what the detachment's orders were. For just a moment, in spite of all the strength and spirit which Shareef shared with a mystical Sand Cat, his heart went out to this detachment of troops, who would have a long, potentially bloody, and almost hopeless fight if the main body of the pirate force got this far into the castle's internal passageways. He suddenly had an impulse to turn back, and to say something to the leader of the detachment. But as he started to speak up, the careful words he had chosen turn to mush in his mind, and he ended up saying nothing, except to stand perfectly still for a moment, which caught the eye of the captain of the guard detachment.

Shareef came to proper attention in the style of the Bontarian soldier, and without a word, Shareef saluted him, and held the salute until the captain returned it, breaking gaze with Shareef only to redirect his keen sight back down along the corridor along which they had come.

Then Shareef turned, as quiet as a Ranger, up on his toes in the same style as Shibu, and broke into a long, loping run up toward the castle, as fast as he could go.

As he made better time than the soldiers ever could, Shareef had a blunt reminder of the real human stakes in the battle to come. If he and Shibu could not stop the pirates at the water's edge, on the beach, there was a very good chance that the men behind him, and a good many others would not see another dawn.

This terrible thought redoubled Shareef's determination, and by the time he had raced the remainder of the distance of the ever narrowing secret passageway toward Bonta Castle, he felt every strength within him seem to focus into a single point of light, brighter and hotter than he had ever known any light to be, even the blue light of the life energy that stood to be so diminished by the battle to come if Shibu's tower failed.

That was when Shareef had another idea. A traditional, terrible, awful idea. There was also a good deal of danger in it, but Shareef could no longer see nor think in clean, straight lines of light, nor of logic. If his idea worked, Shibu would have all the precious time he required. Perhaps the siege could be reduced to a single fight, and all that would require would be one individual's life, rather than that of an entire Kingdom.

Shareef stopped dead in his tracks along the familiar point in the passageway that reduce traffic to single file. In the very spot where Shibu had shown him how to cast his first pair of portals, Shareef cast another pair. The twin circles of blue light took him instantly homeward, into the tall observation tower that had become home and hearth to himself and to his brother.

A pair of mammoth oaken doors, each one as wide as two gobbal drawn carts stood securely locked, and barred with two great beams of iron against any force which might try to break in to the base of the tower which was Shareef's home.

But now, Shareef used his natural ability, and a second set of portals took him not only up to, but gave him passage through the massive courses of the ten foot wall which formed the very base of the entire tower itself!

It was a feat done so quickly that if he had pause to think about it, he might've not been able to do it. But in his own mind, it only had to be done once, and being so very well done without thought, Shareef let it drop from his mind as he pressed himself against the corner where the courses to the white stone melded with the rugged rock of the cliff face.

It had been here, in this very spot, where his brother had been accorded the honor of a lifetime only a few nights before.  
This time, Shareef got to see another vista. This one no less breathtaking than his brothers ceremony of investiture.

Stretched out in one wide panorama were the still and silent sands of the beach, and the timeless line where sea and sand met in an eternal argument over who would win, the land, or the water itself.  
Shareef looked up slowly, and his vision was filled with something that seemed for a moment as numerous as the grains of sand on the tide line.

The coastal waters in front of the beach were alive with what seemed to be a sweeping fan made of small lights, as each one in a wave of boats rowed relentlessly onward, toward the tide line, aiming for the broad beach where Shareef now stood alone, invisible for the moment in the short, midnight shadows cast by the castle tower that he called home.

This is where he would stand.

This is where he and the Sand Cat would fight.

This is where the criminals come to defile his home would face retribution.

But it hadn't come to that. Not yet.

Shareef felt the indomitable power of the Sand Cat who was a part of him now for all time stand with him, hidden as Shareef was, for just a moment longer in the shadows of the terrible battle to come.

There was one more thing which he simply had to try, no matter what the price would be, because Shareef knew in the same moment that he felt the strength of the Sand Cat meat his own that the savings for the price paid, would justify their sacrifice.

With his mind and his course set, Shareef waited a few moments more for the lead boat, showing both a white and a red lantern in the prow to draw slightly closer to the beach.

Shareef pulled in a huge, deep breath, thought of Shibu, and then asked the help of the Sand Cat before he opened his mouth, and snarled one name into the midnight black ocean in front of him. It gave the mighty sand cat within him voice at last, as Shareef turned all of his determining vitriol into the speaking of a single name.

“MEN-DOZ-A!” Shareef snarled, giving pyroclastic flow to all the animal strength that he could focus within himself!

For one more of the precious moments that Shibu needed so badly, time itself, and even the relentless sea seemed to pause in its course.  
Shareef counted three full seconds before the twang of the familiar, deeply accented voice seem to call back to him out of the midnight black sea.

"Who calls there?" The Commodore's voice called back. "Mendoza, fleet Commodore, at your service."

"In the name of the kingdom of Bonta, and in the grand tradition kept by men of the sea, I, Shareef Al Azim, challenge you to personal combat, in the tradition of Captain Soames. The prize to be the white city and the kingdom of Bonta, and all she harbors." Shareef shot back in the tone of defiance twenty times his own stature.

If ever there had been a moment since that desperate dig in the sands when he was much younger, Shareef had never felt so much of the Sand Cat come to him so strongly, nor with so much resolve.

Shareef's challenge had been perfectly timed. For he knew as well as Mendoza did that every man Jack of his pirate crew had heard the challenge as well. Shareef permitted himself a momentary smile, as he himself took a bet, merely for the humor of it, that Mendoza's crew was already whispering odds between themselves, and wagering with them their shares of a sacked white city.

Shareef held the smile for a moment more. He knew that the all important first move in the strategic game for Bonta had already been a victory for him.

Mendoza could refuse, but in doing so, he would show the yellow stain in front of his entire complement of crew.

And after having won enough of their confidence to gamble on assaulting Bonta, it was a show of the white feather that Mendoza could not afford, even for all the shares represented in Bonta.

Shareef knew he had won already, when he saw one of the two lights in the prow of the leading longboat seem to jump up from where it had been, and swing back and forth, leaving a long trace of white light in its wake.

Suddenly, Shareef was aware of only the calm that went with the midnight waves rolling onto the beach a few yards away. The sound of men working at oars stopped, leaving Shareef with an ominous quiet, that was broken a moment later by Mendoza's own voice.

"I accept." Mendoza shot back, as quickly as the small rail mounted cannon that had wounded Felicity.

"Your choice of weapons?" Mendoza called a moment later.

"I choose bare knuckles, Commodore." Shareef answered back just as quickly.

"I freely grant you your own choice of weapon, knowing full well that no weapon of any type will avail you at all."

Now, Shareef waited a moment more. The nature of his challenge alone would have been enough for any honorable Man of the Sea. But for a coward such as he knew Mendoza to be, Shareef's invitation to the Commodore as related to weapons now made the challenge practically irresistible for the wretch and the coward which Mendoza truly was.

"Prepare to meet your end, and that of your city." Mendoza called back.  
'For before I take your life, you will see the city burn with your own eyes, as the last thing you see on your way to hell." Mendoza snarled in return before an ominous silence descended on the tide line, this time broken not by word, but by the single sound of a pair of boots splashing heavily into the water at the shore, and making quick light steps as Mendoza crossed from water onto the beach.

Shareef drew himself up onto his toes, before squaring his shoulders. As his body and mind made ready, Shareef imitated Shibu once more, and cast the first of a pair of portals directly in front of him.

"I love you, Shibu," whispered Shareef with a gentle softness as his now blue vision clearly made out the form of Mendoza, running straight toward him, with cutlass drawn, and the blade swinging savagely around about his head.

Shareef ignored the terrifying vision for one moment longer, to cast a second portal.

He stepped through the first of the two, and battle was joined.

* * *

Shibu forced his keen mind to concentrate. He had only had to do that a few times that he could remember.

Shibu tended to treat all problems like puzzles, and when given a new puzzle, Shibu's mind was in its element.  
But for some reason, to allow his natural concentration to come to the fore, Shibu found himself fighting off intense waves of the two deadliest emotions.

Fear and sadness.

Shibu already understood the destructive power which both represented when they combined. Shibu's first fight on this evening of destiny was a long dark battle, which lasted nearly a moment too long.  
Shareef was gone, doing his part to repel the invasion of Buccaneers that were closing fast on an open seacoast.

He had gone to buy Shibu the time he so desperately needed, but it was time he could now feel slipping through his hands, and all at once, Shibu felt truly useless and utterly alone for the first time in his life.

It was a cold, hollow, and foreboding sensation whose core was avoid Shibu had never experienced.

Focusing a moment of sheer determination and absolute willpower born out of his own love for Shareef, Shibu focused his mind on the problem before him.

The ancient drawings left by his people made construction seem simple enough. The drawings which followed showed the tower in operation, but not one word of instruction was left behind with a remarkable illustrations etched into blue stone.

Shibu cleared his mind for a moment, and once it was free of emotion concerning Shareef, Shibu turned his remarkable power of concentration loose on the problem.

His knowledge of the illustrations left in the blue stones which made up the deep cavern itself was nearly encyclopedic. He had spent hours, and even days in every space that was big enough for him to crawl into, taking rubs with paper and charcoal, and then preserving them by copying the charcoal drawings one line at a time with permanent ink.

As a result, Shibu could consult a formidable book of his own making of all the ancient wisdom illustrated by his people, and preserved by those people who had obviously rebuilt the cavern, literally one brick at a time.

The rebuilding itself had been a far more massive undertaking than the construction of the tower itself, even considering the technological advances which the tower represented.

Shibu allowed all of this, plus his own intuition to filter through layers of his own thought and concentration.

In ancient times, when his people probably numbered in the hundreds, if not their thousands, the amount of energy they could've commanded as a community would have been nearly limitless. But even Eliotropes were never ones to waste resources or energy. Every Eliotrope design which Shibu had managed to copy from the vast blue walls of the cavern never showed more than a few of them operating what appeared to be increasingly complex mechanical devices.

So it stood to reason that the tower itself needed the fewest number of people practical to make it work.

Shibu had figured that there would be two of them at a minimum. But now, he was alone, at least for the moment, as the sole source of power for the tower left him by his people.

Shibu turned the design of the tower over once again in his mind. The designs of most things mechanical usually left some clue as to how they work. 

The original illustrations opened the base of the tower at the four cardinal points of the compass. This implied at least four of his people needed to focus their Wakfu onto the angled mirrors which formed the base of the tower, and onto each succeeding tier of mirrors that would effectively focus reflected energy onto the hard brilliance of the diamond lens.

One in four.

Shibu had never been bothered by the laws of chance, nor of probability in anything he did.

Now, what seemed a twenty-five percent chance seen for the moment like grasping at straws.

Shibu held this thought, not permitting it to go any farther as he looked up from the base of the tower to the top of its golden wicker dome.

This construction was born in the hearts of his people, and in their minds. He knew something of those people, by their industry and determination at building and improving their lives. The story etched into the blue cavern walls spoke of a people that never stopped trying, never stopped exploring, and most of all, never gave up.

Shibu's own spirit reflected his people. His own way of doing things was exactly that. Doing rather than talking. Making something happen, rather than simply dreaming about it, as so many did when it came to putting action behind their thoughts and hopes.

Shibu was an Eliotrope. And the time for dreaming and hoping was done. The people of Bonta, his new homeland, had given of themselves to make his dream and their hope a reality.

Now no matter what it took, even if it was every last bit of energy Shibu could muster, he would make their dream and their hopes into their reality when they needed them most.

Shibu walked slowly to the edge of the worktable that had been set up near the base of the tower. On the table, pinned to a wooden shingle, was Shibu's line for line copy of the tower, alive with a fountain of blue light which dwarfed the tower itself, and perhaps projected wakfu outward into the universe itself.

Shibu picked up the drawing, and looked upon it once more, with his own clear blue eyes glowing with the energy of his own Wakfu.

As his eyes moved from the drawing in his hands to the completed structure, and back again, Shibu's own hope gave his drawing energy, and a sense of flowing movement and life, in the same way that his wakfu brought the other illustrations in the cavern to life whenever he drew near them.

Behind bright eyes colored pure blue with energy, Shibu suddenly understood in the span of a single thought not only why the tower worked, but how it worked as well!

Shibu dropped the wooden shingle with the drawing pinned to it as if it had suddenly become too hot to hold. Shibu found himself almost swept away in a torrent of energy as powerful as that which the tower seemed to project.

Shibu pulled a long deep breath from the cool night air, and took a resolute step toward the tower. That step became a Ranger's run as Shibu determined with all of his own energy that the time for showing had come at last!

Shibu dashed into the nearest open door built into the base of the tower. Shibu hoped there was something beyond coincidence in his reflexive choice of the door which faced East, the direction that pointed out to sea.

Shibu's next thought was for the safety of the others still working to point and properly angle the mirrors which lined the inside of the octagonal tower.

"Everyone out, for a test firing!" Shibu commanded a loud voice, even though his slightest whisper could have been heard at the top of the tower thanks to the acoustics of the eight sided structure.

From the broadest beam atop the tower, to the wooden slide ways built into the ascending tiers of wood and glass, workman scrambled quickly down. Some sliding, while others who were working on the outside attached long ropes to the safety harnesses that they wore, and simply dropped off the edge of the tower, kicking off lightly with their feet against the solid wooden structure as they dropped toward the ground.

In less than half a minute, the eldest of the glassblowers stuck his head around the corner of the Eastern doorway and called out to Shibu.

"All clear, Sir Shibu! Let's see her light up!"

Shibu felt an extra surge of admiration for the lens maker as he stood his ground at the Eastern doorway of the tower, not six feet behind where Shibu now stood, facing part of the faceted wooden inner wall of the structure, whose only evident opening was a square panel just large enough for Shibu to insert his two hands in such a way that his palms faced the inter-core of mirrors, all of them focused on the lowest beam splitter set into the central column.

Shibu's original plan had been to do incremental testing, beginning with the smallest amount of Wakfu, and then building to levels which would light the skies over Bonta, and hopefully, by directed reflection, the pirate fleet as well.

Just as Shibu debated how much energy to focus into the tower, the calm night air along the coast was torn by the shout of a voice that Shibu found breathtakingly familiar.

"MEN-DOE-ZA!”

For Shibu, it was as clear and is urgent a battle cry as had ever been sounded by any Bontarian. But it was made a hundred times more urgent by the fact that the sound of an evil name had risen in challenge from his brother's own voice!

Shibu's Wakfu seemed to explode from him in a brilliant sheet of clear blue flame! Reflex alone drove his hands into and beyond the square opening into the mirrored core of the tower, and with a feral roar to match his brothers own shout, Shibu poured the entire sum of his Wakfu into the tower made of wood, glass, diamond, and hope.


	50. Zenith of the Blue Star

Shareef's first reaction was purely defensive. Instead of tucking and rolling to avoid the sweeping slash of the cutlass, Shareef's defensive motion of a hand block cast a pair of portals!

And as quickly as he seemed to have dashed across the beach toward him, Commodore Mendoza ran into one of the blue circles and simply disappeared from sight!

A gasp rose up from the men still shipping oars in Mendoza's longboat as their leader just vanished.

Shareef was just as surprised, but his next reaction came from the Sand Cat rather than from himself. He gathered, and jump to one side, in a sinuous pouncing motion that any feline would have recognized.  
As for the brigands assaulting the beach, their leader returned a few moments later, turned around by his voyage through a second portal that pointed him back toward the water as he stumbled out of the second circle.

For just a moment, Mendoza seemed no worse for ware for his unexpected journey into the mystic space and time between portals. But then quite unexpectedly, Mendoza sank to his knees on the sand, facing his own crew as he threw himself down upon the blissfully solid sand as his body threw up just as hard as it could manage!

Every man who'd ever spent time on the sea was used to hearing the cacophony of sound that went along with someone being utterly and unreservedly sick. But the ethos and Elan of the sea captain required that the captain and leader never be sick in front of his crew.  
At least not on shipboard.

But this time, Mendoza excelled himself, leaving a wet, sloppy puddle of bile steaming on the sand of the beach well above the tide line.  
It was purely a reflexive action, drawn out only by Mendoza's sudden and complete inability to control himself in any way.  
As he watched from a yard back, and one yard to the left, Shareef was suddenly as glad as Mendoza was unhappy. He did not wait, nor did he want to give Mendoza the advantage of regaining his feet. Instead, Shareef cast another pair of portals. This time, the exit portal in the pair put Shareef well within kicking range of Mendoza's temporarily exposed backside, which Shareef kicked just as hard as he could, doing his very best impression of Shibu along the way!

Attacked from the rear, Mendoza tottered like an uneven pile of bricks, and slowly fell down and forward, headed directly for the vile puddle that had just shot from his own stomach.

A leader of the Pirates barely managed to avoid getting a face full, but his upper chest and torso landed square in the muck, with an awful and slightly bubbly, squishy sound.

It was both the sight and the sound spectacle that made the few of his crewmen who had reached the tide line wince openly as they took their first steps onto Bontarian sands.

Shareef knew better than to be still, and as Mendoza made a game effort to rise from the slop, sand, and soil, Shareef had already cast his third pair of portals in a minute, these two taking him farther up, and further across the beach, this time tens of yards more distant from the now slightly sloppy officer, and his miscreant crew.

But this time, Shareef moved with a purpose. He wanted something, and needed something from the natural surroundings nearby. And since he knew the stretch of beach almost better than anyone, Shareef knew exactly where to find exactly what he wanted.

This stretch of beach was carved and ground by the sea out of a particular spot in the Bontarian seacoast. It was really a mixture of sand and most important for Shareef, rocks, both large and small, of the same heavy type that made up the craggy Bontarian coastline.

While Mendoza was collecting himself, and the midnight hour was rent by a terrible half shriek as Mendoza caught the full sight and smell of what had been done to his best waistcoat, Shareef was casually selecting one of the smooth, rounded and heavy rocks polished into a neat oval shape by year after year of Bontarian waves. He selected his rock carefully but quickly, choosing one that were smooth and heavy, and which fit comfortably into his own Palm.

Shareef gently tossed his selections of stone into an open portal, into which he himself dove a moment later. Thus he had already disappeared when Mendoza rose both to his feet and to a fine full fury over the indignity which had been accorded to him upon his arrival in Bonta!

"Where are you, you slimy young eel?" Mendoza bellowed like a ball slapped unceremoniously across his butt by a sweep of the matadors saber.

But all at once, the beach was empty, and there was no sign of Shareef anywhere to be seen, either by Mendoza nor by the eyes of his crew.

In the eyes of the men of the longboat, their August and stately leader was suddenly storming up and down the beach, yelling in vain at phantoms, and cursing ghosts which could not be seen by normal men!

Shareef had cast his exit portal well back and out of the way, onto a small corner of sand obscured by a huge rock which was the only natural remainder other than sand of the ancient Bontarian coastline. Here, Shareef could catch his breath, consolidate his plan, and even pause to enjoy the spectacle of the pirate dandy stomping over the sand, as he charged up and down the beach in a vain effort to locate someone who had perpetrated such a scurrilous attack upon his dignity.

The crew of the lead longboat, which had been under Mendoza's direct command until a moment before, began to exchange worried glances among themselves as they saw their leader boil over with a volcanic rage, and begin a slashing run up and down the beach, looking for one of these unseen ghosts, and even calling it by name, as the great, Mendoza, renowned as a tactician seem to lose all sense of reason for a very worrying moment.

Watching the spectacle from his momentary safe harbor, Shareef drew another clean deep breath, and finally put down the last of his own fears. It was he who was in control of this place, his place, and of this fight as well. And it was high time that Shareef showed Mendoza exactly what, and whom, Mendoza was up against.

While Mendoza was running almost sideways across the stricter beach upon which he had landed, Shareef disappeared into another portal. This one was far more perilous, as it would bring Shareef within a stones throw of a visibly angry, and almost unbalanced opponent.

Shareef reappeared a moment later, a good for yards or so beyond any reach Mendoza could hope to make with a leap, or with the extension of the blade.

"I beg your pardon, Captain queasy!" Shareef called out loudly in a tone of voice that mixed both menace in just a trace of laughter along with it. "Were you by chance looking for me, Commodore seasick, Sir?"

Hearing the voice, and seen the figure not so very far distant from him, Mendoza froze where he stood, his seeming progress in his hunt for phantoms suddenly halted as if the ship of his reason had finally dropped anchor, there, somewhere on the sands!

"You!" Mendoza bellowed, finally laying furious and fiery eyes on the one who had so offended him.

"I'm going to cleave you to bloody bits!" Mendoza snarled as he pivoted to face the far distant figure who had seem to appear like one of the apparitions he had been chasing only a moment before.

Shareef's answer came down in words, but in a fine and fluid side arm pitch of his rock Shareef had collected while Mendoza was chasing ghosts. The large rock was well aimed, and the smooth brown stone seem to leap across for yards of space, to strike Mendoza just below his receding hairline, knocking the Commodores fine feathered plumed tri-cornered hat for as much is a loop as Mendoza senses seemed to take as the heavy stone struck the head underneath Mendoza's ornate hat.

Mendoza six-foot frame simply collapsed into a heap, as if it was made of wet sand taken from along the tide line where the crew of his boat now stood watching their leader with intense and worrisome fascination.

"That would hurt!" Shareef rebuked sharply. "About as much is that, I do reckon." Shareef continued after his rock struck home firmly, silencing Mendoza long enough for Shareef to speak.

"You will do me no harm, you vile man. Nor will your brigands harm this place which I call home." Shibu called out in a loud voice, which was cleaner, clearer, and stronger than the voice of any ghost upon the land or upon the sea.

"Your reign here shall never end, for it is I who will never permit it to begin." Shareef continued his voice rising in clarity and in strength as he spoke. This time, his words were pointed at the increasing number of men who were disembarking at the tide line, coming from their boats on to the sands to watch the battle between Mendoza, and what had seemed until a moment before to be a ghost.

But now, a more frightening specter than any they had seen in all the years at sea combined stood before them. The small form was surrounded by a circle of blue light, of the kind that many of them had seen the previous night as their supply ships went to the bottom as broken and burning wrecks. Some of the men on the tide line now were survivors of the prize crews who manned those supply ships, and had seen their own vessels literally burned out from under them by the sweeping power of the same blue light that they could see now surrounding whatever apparitions this was to warn them away so forcefully, and with such vivid demonstration.

"This vile man leads you in the invasion of my land, and my home." Shareef told the men now gathered at the tide line. "Like yourselves, oh men of the sea, I shall fight for my home, and for these lands, which I protect with this blue light that you have seen so vividly, and know so well at your own peril." Shareef told the thirty or so men now standing in the surf, getting their feet sloppy wet, because no man Jack of them dared to move.

“Take your leader, and go from this place. I will not harm you, for you follow only where bad leadership has called you. Leave now, and sailed away in peace, while you still have the chance to tell the tale you have seen this night." Shareef said to them all together in a voice that was increasingly strong and commanding in its tone, replacing the silenced voice of Mendoza who laid in a disheveled heap only a yard or two away, completely insensible.

"If you come as invaders, bent on fighting, you will see and feel the wrath of this blue light, and of its Masters. If you go, no Bontarian nor I will follow, nor do you any more harm at all.”

* * *

Shibu's vision instantly turned blue. The air around him, and even the air he breathed seem to take on the same familiar color.  
For the first time in hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years, an Eliotrope device felt and contained the living energy so well known to his people. The torrent of blue presented itself to his eyes as a single narrow beam, coursing at unbelievable speed into, through, and around the wooden structure and the glass facets along the inside of the tower. Moving at the speed of light was so fast that most of the minds in the world of the twelve could not understand it.

But to Shibu, and his intense concentration, events seem to unfold more slowly. Almost too slowly, given the urgency of the situation contained in the space of time that was shorter by a hundred times than a single heartbeat.

Shibu saw the beam of his own life energy split four times, and each of those beams refracted eight times as the blue light suddenly filled the tower to overflowing, and thirty-two beams of perfect, equidistant blue light seem to plug themselves into the bottom of the diamond lens, as the most perfect and purest stone in all the kingdom took up, reflected, and then refracted one incredibly powerful blue pulsation of pure light.

It seemed to focus more as it passed through the purity of the carbon, and another type of blue light seem to come alive as a single beam shot upward from the diamond toward the oculus, and strike the focusing lens and the reflective mirror at the top of the tower with the surgical precision of a force of life suddenly set loose upon the world. The Blue beam sought freedom from one of her bonds held it back. The beam seem to claw its way into the night sky, aimed at its very center, toward a star at the zenith of the night sky that was incalculably far distant and free, as the blue light seemed to achieve its goal of becoming one with something larger than itself scarcely a moment after Shibu had given it birth.

The entirety of the night sky over the seacoast of Bonta instantly gave up its own coloration and the spangled mix of starlight which was the typical Bontarian sky. Instead, as far as Shibu could sense, and as far as his own blue eyes could see, the whole sky over the world of the twelve seem to turn wakfu blue.

Shibu was far too busy pouring his own life energy into the base of the tower to consider the consequences of the moment. But through his own senses, including his own eyes wash with the same shade of life-giving blue, Shibu could sense a change in the environment that came to his senses almost like the cracking of a whip against some far distant target, as the air around him, and even that taken into his lungs to sustain them seem to take on an entirely new and fearsome level of both energy, and life itself.

He was not exactly sure in the moment of what he had done, nor our he had done it. But in the deepest recesses of his mind and his heart, Shibu was absolutely certain that moment that the world of the twelve would never again be completely the same. Shibu is only thought after that in the moment after the sky blossomed in the shade of blue was that whatever he had done, and however he had done it, it would give Shareef some indefinable moment of advantage in his own fight against the Pirates on the beach.

His only wish in that moment was to sustain that advantage, and the blue light from the tower for as long as he possibly could. Shibu had learned from Shareef that Buccaneers were a superstitious lot, as it was there unique method for dealing with the unknowns of travel across mysterious seas. The longer he could make the moment last, the more forceful and energetic it could be, the deeper and more abiding its effect would become.

So Shibu thought one last time about Shareef, Cici, and most of all of the pure heart of his mother, and the vision of Felice before his eyes was the last thing he saw as he seemed to fold his own consciousness into the power of the blue light which gave birth to the beam, completely giving himself up as he thought of his family.

The blue light seem to enfold him, drawing him deeper into his own Wakfu than he had ever been before. He was dimly aware of not only his own light, but his own consciousness and his own being as it was drawn up into the tower, and caromed off each and every splitter, off of each and every mirror, multiplying an infinite number of times before the essence of that force was focused and amplified through the diamond lens. Shibu himself seemed to join with the light which shot upward beyond the world which he love. In a moment, Shibu became a part of something more universal and harmonious than ever he had thought of or dreamed of a moment before.

There was a sweet silence, as the roaring sound of his own voice seemed to pass away, left somewhere far below him. The most complex part of Shibu's being joined the limitless power and freedom of the light as it surged upward and outward to forever change the universe of which Shibu and the light was suddenly an equal portion.


	51. Leap of Faith

“Oh, my sweet boy!"

Felicity's unexpected interjection spoke for everyone in the room as the family gathered around Shibu's bedside.

Felice took a firm hold on Felicity's trembling hands. "None of that my girl!" Felice told her sharply. "We simply have no time, and I need you to help me." The Elder Enripsa told her junior firmly. "And Shibu needs you just as much as I do. Can you handle it, or must I call for help?" Felice asked quickly in a tone of voice that got down to cases with as few words as the group had time for.

"Tell me what to do." Was Felicity's brief and affirmative reply as she glanced once more at Shibu's form, now colored an unexpected shade of charcoal black, at least on the surface, rather than the fine bronze coloration which Felicity enjoyed seeing so much more.

"Open my brush case, and had me a sterile number ten brush." Felice instructed shortly. "Then I want you to stand by with four of the red bottles you'll find packed away with my brushes."

Felicity felt her emotional mind go blank as her reflexes kicked in, and allowed her training to take over. Almost before Felice had finished speaking, Felicity was into the senior healers brush case, and had picked up the largest brush she could find almost by reflex.

To Felicity's surprise, there was more glassware than wood in Felice's brush case. The small, palm-sized vials of red liquid occupied a special niche in the corner of the case, forming one corner of it, with six of the small glass bottles packed close together, each fitting into their own padded compartment that was topped by a wooden insert with a matching hole which fit closely around the neck of each bottle.

Felicity simply put two hands into Felice's case, and drew out all six bottles at once, and held them ready.

Felice slid the brush that she had requested gently out of Felicity's fingers, peeling back the sterile paper wrapping as she took hold of the brush and held it aloft slightly so she could charge it with her own healing energy. Once the tip of the brush glowed a unique shade of blue, Felice understood that it was ready, and she applied the brush gently to Shibu's torso, her very first strokes falling directly over his heart.

The blue energy from the brush spread quickly, as if the energy was more liquid than astral. Felicity watched intensely as Felice used the soft tip of the brush to push and to guide the flow of blue energy over all of the smoke stained skin on Shibu's chest. The healing energy and it soft blue tone scarcely came into contact with the darker areas before the healing flow began to crackle, and in certain spots it seemed to bubble, effervescing slightly as the healer's blend of energy and magic met wounded skin. A hue of soft violet rose from the healing essence, and seemed to flow over Shibu's torso like blood of another color.

Felicity's hopes rose as she saw most of the smoke gray color polluting Shibu's wonderfully handsome bronze skin begin to recede, like a wave rolling ashore which was suddenly pushed back out to see by a better and more well-formed flow of blue energy.

In less than a minute of work on Shibu's torso and passing the brush gently along the muscular outline of his rib cage, the warm bronze of his natural skin color was once again restored. Only the smallest spots of gray and purple blotches remained here and there. These, Felicity could recognize as simple superficial bruises, which could be healed in one of two ways. Either via the successive application of finer and finer healing brushes, or simply by the time proven method which involved ice and time.

"Bottle!" Felice called out shortly, extending a hand as she spoke, even as the brush continued to move slowly along Shibu's rib cage.  
Felicity opened the unique box within a box, and the first of the six bottles, the leftmost one in a row of three seem to rise slightly as the smaller case was opened. This made taking hold of the bottle quick and steady, as Felicity passed it in a smooth arc, setting it gently into Felice's more experienced hand.

Normally, healing potions were taken internally, which is to say, they were imbibed, like any libation such as tea or fresh milk.  
But with these particular potions, thanks to Shibu's own inventive diligence, there was another way, and is Felice poured the red liquid directly onto Shibu skin, where it met the blue energy from the brush, there arose a unique green energy which was pushed onto as much of Shibu skin as the brush could reach.

Felice even guided some of the excessive flow from the bottle in a slow trickle, which roll down slowly from Shibu's rounded shoulders along the inside of his arms, and downward to his elbows, all the while covering Shibu in an eerie green sheen of combined healing energies.

A moment later, Shibu gasped lightly, and made a game try at sitting up in bed. But his progress slowed as he felt his mother's hands on his shoulders pushing him bodily back down onto the cot.

"Felicity, take the brush, and work on his tummy while I hold him steady." Felice told Felicity urgently.

Felicity was ready, and when the moment came, she took the brush easily, exactly copying the grip on it that Felice had used a moment before. The handle of the brush had not tipped over before Felicity had a hold of it again, and was applying long horizontal strokes along the dense lines of Shibu's tummy, crisscrossing them was shorter vertical strokes, so that no spot on his belly went untouched.

As Felicity worked, she began to feel Shibu's body directly as a harmonic of the energy flowing through the brush, helped by the conductivity of the skin, as wet down as it was with the subtle violet healing potion. Felicity was glad when she felt Shibu relax, and slide back down between the covers on the cot, seemingly as comfortable as a sleeping Bow meow!

Felice's hands left Shibu shoulders, and the pair of Enripsa executed a perfect exchange of positions, which put Felicity closer to Shibu's head, while his mother took up the brush again, and began a second layer of brushstrokes which evenly distributed both the energy of the brush, and the energy present in the healing fluid around Shibu's wounded torso.

"Thank the Sea Dragon that he's built better than half of Bonta." Felice whispered, the relief in her voice very evident to Felicity.  
"From what I can see, most of it is just soot, and a few light contact burns." Felicity observed, he's probably burned himself worse helping Shareef make supper for the two of them."

"We still have his hands and arms to do." Felice replied dryly. "We may have more to do up there."

Felicity reached down, and wiped a smudge as black as Shibu's own hair from his four head and eyebrows. She breathed her own sigh of relief as more fine bronze skin, and his own dense black colic was revealed under the black surface stain.

Felicity took the chance to reach into the kit she carried attached to her own belt. She very quickly produced a soft pad of cotton wool which she dampened slightly with water drawn from a bottle that opened from a firm wax seal. Felicity had reason to smile, as the soot seem to fall away from the handsome face she admired so much.

Soon, his eyelids, and his high cheekbones were free of black stain, and Shibu began to look like Shibu again, rather than an apprentice chimney sweep who got caught on the wrong end of the fireplace fleu as the damper was opened.

"I'm not sure exactly what master Chang did, but it seems to me most of the credit for this healing job needs to go to him, rather than to us." Felice observed, as she looked up herself into the familiar, and now gently clean face of her son.

"He wasn't here when we arrived." Felicity observed carefully. "I hope he's alright, too."

"He's been around longer than all of us put together, my dear. I'm quite sure he's alright." Felice replied casually as she inspected Shibu from the waist down, and along to his legs and feet, finding them absolutely flawless, in need of no more cleaning than to remove the soot which spoiled the tone of his skin.

"All things considered, Felicity, I think all that Shibu really needs for the moment is a good rest. If I know my boy the way I think I do, he probably pushed himself way too far tonight, and he probably got bitten for it." Felice observed quietly, as she rose from her place, and took her time making sure that Shibu was well tucked into the canvas and wood framed bed that he found so ultimately comfortable.

"I think you need to be careful yourself, Felice." Felicity replied with genuine sympathy in her voice. "I think Shibu learned how and when to push from his mother, if you ask me. And one member of the family pushing themselves at a time is quite enough for me, thank you." The younger Enripsa observed, all the while trying not to sound impertinent.

"How's your shoulder,m'dear?" Felice asked Felicity, changing both their relationship and the subject at the same time.

"It still aches a little bit." Felicity replied amiably enough. "I think it's mostly the muscles. I'm going to be able to tell when it's going to rain from now on, I think I realize that much."

"That's your shoulder, and my knees, Felice confessed quietly to the younger healer. "I think it must be some rite of passage that the more people we heal, the more aches and pains the years bring us to feel." Replied Felice with a warm smile at her newly adopted daughter.

"Poetic justice." Felicity replied simply. "Think we need to post some guards to keep him in bed, or you think that Shareef will be enough to keep him there?" Felicity wondered right out loud.

The reference made Felice giggle ever so lightly. "The way those to feel about each other, I'm surprised that Shareef isn't trying to batter down the door right about now." Felice answered with a wink. "He'll be in the best possible hands with Shareef close by." Felice remarked with assurance.

"I almost wish I could stay and watch." Felicity said offhandedly.

"Never you mind, my daughter the busybody." Felice said with a tone that was both overly wise and too insightful to suit Felicity for just a moment, before she smiled too.

"Oh well, I guess I'll just have to have my fun watching the wrestling matches." Felicity said with a trace of mock regret in her voice.

"Wrestling matches?" Felice wanted to know. "Wherever did you get that idea?"

"Our two best boys just saved an entire city, and quite possibly an entire Kingdom, Felice." Felicity observed in a slightly overly wise tone. "We both know that this place, and maybe the entire Kingdom besides, is going to come completely unglued with celebrations this time around."

"That's one of the things I love most about you Felicity." Felice replied with a warm smile and gentle touch of her daughters cheek as she spoke. "You always seem to know when there's going to be more work for the two of us, and maybe, if you're right, every Enripsa in Bonta." Felice remarked as she considered the situation.

"I've already got a week of hospital staff on the volunteer lists." Felicity confessed quietly. "When the people in this kingdom realize how close we came to not being a kingdom anymore, most of the good citizens around here are going to take any excuse at all to go absolutely wild." Felicity observed.

"Come to think of it, Cici and the Cra detachment may have more to do for the next couple of weeks than the entire company of the Royal Guards." Felice replied with a giggle of her own. "I certainly hope that Shibu and Shareef will be able to spare the city and the King a little bit of time, at the very least."

Shibu rolled over into world of softness. He seemed adrift in a vast plain of warmth and security that both his mind and his body could recognize as being both welcome and familiar.  
His first genuine clue that something was really different was that the deep, joint popping stretch which followed his yawn didn't cause him any pain!

The lack of pain or stiffness was a new sensation, one that instantly cleared the sleepy haze from his mind.

Instantly, he resolved to sit up in bed, no matter how much energy it took, or how much it hurt. As much as he enjoyed the feeling of self warmth wrapped around him like protective armor, is higher mind was alive, and that very same mind told him in blunt authoritarian terms worthy of a dictator rather than the king he so admired, that there were still things to be done. And in a single moment, as was his nature, Shibu felt both his mind and his body tell him that they were ready to take up the slack.

Then, in the next moment, Shibu's concise mind rebounded, seeming to fly over the events of the last day which Shibu could remember, and sharing the sort of compressed and in this case frightening overview that brought Shibu fully awake in the space of time that was required for him to open his eyes.

He did a deal more in one motion than just to sit up. His hands snatched up the edge of the bed covers closest to him, and swept them to one side like a handful of dust. In the same motion, his trained body took over, and Shibu practically vaulted upright, springing out of the feather bed the same way a feral hunter might pounce on a fallen morsel of meat.

Shibu was drawing his third breath in what seemed like the same second when he heard a familiar voice address him. Not from any distance, but close enough so that the whisper into his ear tickled, and that was enough to defuse the moment for Shibu.

"Easy, my handsome bronze brother." Shareef's smooth calm voice seem to echo directly into his brain. "You're warm, you're safe, and thanks to mom and Felicity, very very healthy, by the looks of things.  
Shibu felt Shareef press in close to him, the sensation of Shibu's second set of red and silver silks against his body was the perfect complement to Shareef's warm and gentle whisper of reassurance.  
"For now, we better get you back into bed before someone comes in, because as good as you look, I don't want anyone to see you that way except Mom and me." Shareef added ruefully.

For a moment, Shibu's's normally keen mind failed him. Then he glanced down, and found himself looking not only at his own bare feet, but the entirety of his body, which was absolutely naked, except for some light bandages wrapped gently around Shibu's hands and fingers.

For just a moment, the image of a boxer wrapping his hands for a fight flashed into his mind, along with his own memory of the great blue backflash of energy from the tower.

Shibu gasped audibly, and the expression in his soft eyed glance at Shareef became the quintessence of worry.

"The pirates are gone, my brother. They sailed away under the sort of blue sky which Bonta herself has never seen before. It has lasted three bright days, and three of the gentlest nights that the city and the kingdom have ever known." Shareef spoke up again, as he made an easy show of scooping up Shibu and dropping him with a slightly playful roll back onto the Royal feather bed.

"And I slept..." Shibu began with a smile as he rolled over and over again across the width of the huge bed. 

"And you slept through every minute of it." Shareef replied casually. "Except of course for the first two minutes of it, which you made entirely possible."

"The city and the kingdom?" Shibu asked in a rapidfire tone of urgency.

"Safe, sound, secure, and completely without pirates, as the one hundred or so who decided to stay have now joined the new Bontarian Navy, under the Royal warrant."

"Mendoza?" Shareef wanted to know.

"Taken in charge for piracy, he is in the deepest dungeon in all of Bonta, with six of the Royal guards assigned to look directly into his eyes every moment of the day when he is awake, and six more of the guard to watch him as he eats or sleeps. He awaits the King's pleasure, which all of Bonta knows will be very unpleasant for the former Commodore."

"And you, my sweet olive skinned wonder? Are you hurt, did the brigands injure you in any way?" Shibu wanted to know, his voice becoming more urgent and slightly scared as he spoke to his brother.

"Thanks to your training with portals, the power of Ahki, and a few sound Bontarian rocks, Mendoza never so much as soiled your silks with his touch. In the end, the simpering coward begged to be arrested, to save his highborn hide from the wrath of his own crew."

The entertaining word picture painted by Shareef instantly diffuse Shibu's moment of deepest fear, and the thought of Mendoza falling into the protective embrace of the Royal guards did even more to make him smile.

"Way cool!" Shibu interjected, as his bright blue eyes began to reflect pride in his brother rather than worry for him.  
Shibu quickly rolled back the other way, to sit up on the edge of the bed, still quite uncovered, as he reached out to take Shareef gently by the shoulders, and sweep him into a gentle embrace.

It was then that Shibu took account of his hands for the first time. They did not hurt. As a point of fact, Shibu actually found the secure wrappings which enfolded the center of his palm and each of his fingers to be comfortably protective. It was a feeling he had grown so used to in a moment that he had forgotten about the only physical evidence of his own injury.

"My hands?" Shibu asked gently.

Shareef drew his left hand across his body and up onto his right shoulder, to cover Shibu's bandaged hand with his own.

"That's just mom and Cici being cautious and protective. Take a look through your other blue eyes, and you'll see everything is great." Shareef explained calmly.

Shibu took his brothers advice, and with a blank, and a moment of extra concentration Shibu looked upon his own hands with his vision colored by Wakfu.

They were the same digits he had always known, except for an odd blister here and there, and some discolored skin that seemed to cover his fingertips.

The wraps he wore as dressings did not prevent movement of his fingers, and Shibu found it both easy and comfortable to make the sort of tight fist that he used so often in training without any trace of tightness or pain.

"You know, I could get to enjoy wearing these, if they didn't make holding a hammer a bit more difficult than average." Shibu remarked casually.

"Anything that makes you look stronger, hand wraps or hammers, is just fine by me, my bronze brother." Shareef replied casually as he grasped the edge of the combined sheet and the thick quilt, and pulled them quickly and smoothly over Shibu's bare midsection.

"As much as I enjoy that particular view, let's set it aside for the moment, until a worried city knows that you are well." Shareef said with a smile as he leaned in and kissed his brother warmly, holding the kiss just long enough to satisfy his own three-day and three night fast.

"What in the world has Bonta got to worry about, especially with the pirates gone?" Shibu asked puzzled.

A mild expression of shock crossed Shibu's features, and then brought a smile to his face. "You really don't understand, do you, my inventive sibling." Shareef responded. "The city, and in fact the entire Kingdom, from its head on down, is worried about you, my brother.”

"Me?" Shibu said in honest surprise and partial shock. "I'm as solid as my best hammer."

"That you are, my handsome one. But for three days and three nights the city and the kingdom has not seen you so." Shibu advised gently.

"Then let's show 'um!” Shibu said with a returning groundswell of determination that brought both smile and satisfaction to Shareef's face.

For his part, Shibu had already jumped up, clear of the bed entirely and was already taking broad quick steps toward the small circular staircase which led to the top of the keep of Bonta Castle.  
This time, the only thing that could hold Shibu still was the urgent call of Shareef's worried voice.

"Hold on brother!" Shareef shouted out loud at Shibu as his black haired brother cast a portal in space in front of himself.

Shareef did the same, from the other side, before Shibu could step through his own portal. But Shareef held him this time, and spoke to Shibu in a gentle but reasonable voice.

"Surely brother, if you appear before the whole city of Bonta looking like that, it surely will be a day to remember! Shareef said quietly.

Shibu looked down at himself once more as he stood completely naked next to his brother, and sporting only the familiar hat which the citizens of Bonta now knew so very well.

"Oops!" Shibu said, more quietly this time as his own smile matched his brother's expression. "I suppose you'd better let me borrow those back again for a few minutes anyway." Shibu surmised with a grin.

After a moment, Shareef displayed his newly refined mastery of portals by simply disappearing directly out of the suit of red and silver silks, that collapsed almost obediently into Shibu's waiting hands.

"You go ahead and dress brother." Came a familiar but disembodied voice from another portal nearby. "I'll improvise something more familiar for myself from the spare bed sheets, and join you as soon as I remake my Kefieh.”

"Sounds good, Shareef. I don't want to face the entire city, or even the King himself, without you beside me." Shibu said as he seemed to slide back into the familiar spare set of his own silks. He was completely dressed again the moment that he raised the red and silver hood up over the limits of his familiar hat, and through unique opening that allowed the length of the hats tail to fall down over his back and shoulders.

"Flattering indeed, my brother.” Shareef replied, as part of his arm reached down from a portal that appeared above the feather bed, and took up the folded back length and width of the fine woven sheets. They disappeared upward, as the arm drew back and the portal closed for a moment, while Shibu was adjusting his belt. By the time Shibu had found his shoes waiting for him inside on the bedside table, and was completely dressed as normal, save for the unique arrangement of wraps that covered both of his hands from fingers to wrist.

Another portal opened beside him, and Shareef dropped casually to the floor from a portal just over head high for the slightly taller   
of the two brothers.

"Ready, brother?" Shibu asked with renewed confidence, as Shareef appeared in a flawless white wrap which flowed into an open flow of material at the bottom, more narrow at the waist, and wider again as it crossed over his chest and shoulders to cover his back, with a short white cape flowing behind the entire ensemble, as Shareef's Kefieh shielded him, and the view of his head, from both the eyes of the crowd, and the warm noon day sun.

"I am as ready as you are, my wonderful brother." Shareef answered smiling gently at Shibu.

"But there's one more thing which you need to know, before we take our first steps outside." Shareef told Shibu with a smile.

"And what might that be, handsome?" Shibu asked, chafing just a bit under the restraint of his brothers gentle caution.

"First and always, I love you so very much, my sweet Shibu." Shareef began in a slower and quiet tone. "And second, King Louis has said that on the day you awaken, that there would be two King's in Bonta. One glance at the multitude gathered in front of the keep might well turn even your steady and ever loyal heart." Shareef cautioned gently. "As the happy citizens acclaim one of their own, remember that we are only their servants, and they have only one Royal master."

"Don't worry, Shareef." Shibu replied his voice steady and thoughtful. "I just want to let them know that we are all right, and they will be to, from now on."

"Commendable brother, but you must realize that they too have lived through three days and three nights of sky colored by Wakfu.” Shareef reminded Shibu. "They know, brother. We can no longer pass as strangers come from some faraway land. They understand now that we come from further away than some of them can dream, and that everything must be different from this day forward." Shareef cautioned quietly. "What we say once we step outside before them will open a new page in their history. Have a care, my sweet Shibu."

"Maybe we should talk to the King first?" Shibu considered quietly.

This time, Shareef shook his head. "And so you shall, for he awaits below with his people." Shareef replied.

"The King? Down below? Waiting for us?" Shibu stammered, overtaken with surprise.

"Yes my brother, as I have said to you, things are different now. Your words will begin to light the future for these people, in the same way you wrote upon the skies with blue light."

"Then I need you beside me more than ever before, my brother, because we have to save the Kingdom of Bonta again.”

As Shibu spoke, he reached down and took Shareef's hand gently but firmly into his own, and the two of them walked slowly, one step at a time and together up the small spiral staircase, and out onto the roof of the keep into a sunny day still colored with fluffy clouds that bore the familiar blue tone, just slightly brighter by themselves than the blue in the normal sunny sky.

As the two of them arrived at the top of the tower, the pair caught sight for the first time of tens of thousands of Bontarian citizens, as the group that had come out after the epic storm!

But this group was wider, and more dense, is what seemed even from a high-altitude like ten times that number, as every citizen in Bonta seem to have turned out at or near the base of the lookout tower!  
The very sight of the multitude made Shareef gasp loudly.

The sight of the vast throng gave even the redoubtable Shibu a moment for pause, and rapid reconsideration. After a moment the Eliotrope wearing his trademark red and silver silks brightened and smiled, with the light of an idea as vivid as the blue light that had filled, and indeed overflowed Bontarian skies for the last three days and nights.

Shibu suddenly turned to Shareef, brimming with a new level of confidence, and in your incandescence which Shareef could plainly see in his brothers vivid blue eyes.

"Shareef, are you with me?" Shibu asked quickly.

"To the ends of this world, or any other, my brother. What would you have me do?"

"A leap of faith, my handsome Shareef. Cast the second portal on the way down, so we'll have a soft landing."

Shareef looked a bit puzzled, but had no chance at all to ask for clarification, because a moment later, Shibu grabbed Shareef's hand in his own before taking two jaunty steps forward, off the edge of the tower, and into open space!

The vast throng of Bontarian's at the base of the tower just managed to catch sight of the pair as Shibu and Shareef seemed to jump together off of the height of the tower!

By reflex alone, Shareef reacted, and a round circle of blue light seem to appear below the pair. As quickly as they had been seem to jump, the two brothers had simply vanished from the sight of the surprised, and instantly terrified Bontarian crowd!

Standing below, next to Felice, Cici, and King Louis, Felicity heard a voice in the crowd cut loose a high-pitched and terrifying scream!

In that moment, it was the sort of sound that spoke for every heart suddenly held in the grip of terror by what seemed to be the most horrific outcome they could imagine.

But before the echo of that scream had died away, another change of mood swept through the crowd, as another blue circle appeared only a few feet off the ground, directly in front of Shibu's family, and the King himself.

The surprise and delight of the crowd swept away the moment of unforgiving terror which had gripped them only a moment before, and the general glad mood returned even more quickly, expressed in a ripple of applause and happy whistles from the admiring crowd as Shibu and Shareef dropped gently onto the only two white stones which could be seen in front of their own door.

Shibu led by example, and both brothers knelt ceremonially the moment after their landing, as Shibu spoke for the brothers to King Louis.

"Your most Royal Majesty." Shibu began slowly. "We beg to report to the Court of Bonta, and to our fine citizenry here assembled that we are well, in spite of some slight injury sustained in turning back the threat of the villain Mendoza against Bonta."

Shibu and Shareef maintained their kneeling posture at the feet of the King, and waited for King Louis to answer in the name of his subjects, and in the name of his kingdom.

"Indeed, Sirs Shibu and Shareef." King Louis began formally. "We are most heartened to see you both well. Reports by the dozens have come to us of your valiant efforts to repel the brigands who have threatened our nation, our city and our people." Louis continued formally.

"May it please your most Royal Majesty." Shareef replied as his turn came. "Any small service which we may have rendered to the city, to the kingdom, and to the people of Bonta are acts of gratitude on our behalf, undertaken out of our most heartfelt feelings for your Majesty, the kingdom, the city which we call home, and the populace of which we humbly consider ourselves an insignificant portion."

"We have been somewhat vexed by whispers that the two of you no longer considered yourselves to be Bontarian. However, your actions, and your steadfast loyalty to Bonta have been proven by your actions, of which we fully approve, and wholeheartedly endorse." King Louis replied.

This rising statement brought and overwhelmingly happy reaction from the great multitude of the citizens gathered behind the King. There were never ending ripples of applause, which seemed to flow more and more like the nearby tides, accented from time to time by joyous calls of "Long live Bonta, King Louis, and the two brothers!"

These calls were taken up by more and more of the citizenry, until the United voices of nearly all the people of Bonta spoke with the same sentiment filled with joy, relief, and happiness.

The demonstration built so quickly, and with so much energy, as to rival the blue light which had changed Bontarian skies, and brought a new truth and a new age to the white city, and its citizens.

Standing near to the King, Cici didn't hesitate a moment. She bent down for a moment, sweeping Shibu up onto her shoulders, as she had been doing since the day he learned to walk.

The ability to see the hero of the hour, or one of the brace of heroes gave the crowd more energy and more reason to give voice to their joy and relief.

A moment later, Cici reached down again, offering an arm to Shareef, and brought Shibu over to sit on her other shoulder, while Shareef gently occupied the other.

The sight of both of the brothers gave the crowd the opportunity for which they had been waiting, some for three days and three nights as they cheered raucously, some whistling, and stamping their feet as they stood in place in tribute and thanks to the efforts of Shibu and Shareef.

As the demonstration rolled on, Shibu held up one hand on the left side, and Shareef held up another on the right, as the brothers together asked the crowd for a gentle moment of silence. Almost immediately, you could hear the wind that was the onshore breeze rustling through the fletching feathers in the quiver that still sat across Cici's back.

Shibu and Shareef shared a glance, each knowing the first and most heartfelt thing which both of them needed, and wanted very much to say.

"Long live King Louis, and Long live Bonta!" Both brothers said in unison with the deepest most arousing cheer that the two of them could manage.

The throng immediately resumed its joyous demonstration, the gratitude for the brothers, and general relief for the population flowing out like the currents of a great River fed into the largest of Bonta's white fountains. But this time, the demonstration was not only for the pair of unique brothers. More and more of it seemed to be pointed directly at the short but stout figure who wore royal purple raiment, and a modest gold circlet crown.

Cici turned again to face the King, who had stepped to the forefront, into the space where Shareef and Shibu had been standing when they had made their unusual entrance.

Cici knelt on cue, and let the boys slide off of her muscular shoulders once again to stand before the King. This time the monarch did not hold back. King Louis took Shibu and Shareef into one arm each, and hugged them both warmly, this time for all of Bonta to see!

The assembled citizens took up the familiar cheers once again praising King Louis and Bonta along with the pair of brothers. Their happy noise, which seem to ring like a new bell along that short stretch of Bontarian coastline gave the elderly monarch's first chance this be to the pair of boys almost in private.

"Thank you both again, for this day, you have saved my kingdom for me once more." Louis told Shibu and Shareef as his elderly eyes glistened with a moist blue light all their own.

"We love you very much, your Majesty." Said Shibu and Shareef, speaking with one voice in their reply.

The King of Bonta snuggled the boys closer once again, for all of his subjects to see, and as the trio made room between them, Shibu and Shareef saw King Louis hold out his hand to someone else at the edge of the crowd.

As the citizens vented another happy course of cheers and whistles, Shibu and Shareef were not exactly surprised to see Felice step forward, and take Louis hand, in the gentle and cultured manner of the royal court.

"Now Sirs, I must ask you for another favor, not as your King, but for someone who cares for you just as much." King Louis spoke to Shibu and Shareef in a quiet whisper.

"You have only to ask it, your highness." Shibu replied, not as a knight of the realm, but as someone who's love and concern for him had been made clearly evident in his close and gentle hug.

"With the two of you mind very much if I, well, that is I.." The King stammered for a moment, tied at the tongue and at the heart, until he could speak no more, and simply smiled at Shibu and Shareef.

After a moment, it was Shareef who smiled. "You must let me cook for the wedding. I've never cooked for an entire city before!" Shareef declared brightly, his mind already turning to the vast challenge and joy of a wedding reception where the whole city would be invited.

"And you, my dearest Shibu?" Felice asked her adopted son with the same gentle and loving voice that Shibu so loved and treasured.

"Yes, mother. I love you both so very much." Shibu replied with uncharacteristic softness in his voice. But standing altogether, the family realized that it was hard to speak when you were crying.

Suddenly, there was another rapid flutter of wings, and Shibu found his arms overflowing with a somewhat frail figure of Felicity, whose first and only action was to put her arms around Shibu's neck, and kissed him passionately, even as the entire city of Bonta watched what seemed to be one couple become two couples over the space of a moment!

"I suppose I had better open up the Royal kitchens for you to use, Shareef my lad." The King said to Shareef with a gentle smile. "It seems we may have a double wedding to prepare for!" King Louis observed with a loving smile, as he took the two boys and Felicity into his arms, and hugged them all close and gentle.

It took an extra moment for Shibu to clear both his mind and his throat. The sound was treated as request for silence from the vast throng, who were instantly stilled, as if on command, as the entire city waited to hear Shibu's reply.

"Long live love, and Long live Bonta, your Majesty!" Shibu shouted as loud as he could, as he made a point of reaching out for Shareef, and hugging him close as Bonta's New Royal Family embraced all together to the rising cheers of the crowd.

-The End of the Beginning!-


	52. Epilogue

The moments which followed King Louis’ proclamation and the news of a Royal wedding catapulted Bonta into rolling waves of joyous relief. It took a good-natured intervention of the Royal Guard to hold back the citizens in a ceremonial way so that Bonta’s new Royal Family could retire once more into Shibu’s Tower without the risk of the entire group being overwhelmed by the pressing circulation of people so close to them.

Once the heavy single door on the Castle side was closed and guarded from both the inside and outside, the family quickly climbed the familiar circular iron staircase to reach the more comfortable precincts of the observation tower.

The group, including King Louis, quickly collapsed into a loose circle of hastily collected chairs, and for the first time after the most hectic half of an hour they had ever spent together, Bonta’s newest family could gather their thoughts and themselves together at last.

“My Stars, What a day!” Felice said quietly, still somewhat breathless with both happiness and anticipation.

“You deserve it, Both of you.” Cici replied gently.

“I think that all of us do.” Shibu observed. “Not just our family, but the entire Kingdom. Everyone has been through such a terrible scare.”

“You have something there, My Boy.” King Louis remarked casually. “that’s why I’d like our wedding to involve the entire kingdom of Bonta, and not just the City by itself.”

“Then, as seems usual, we have lots of work to do,” Shibu answered. “But it’s the best sort of work! Isn’t that so, Shareef?” Shibu asked his brother pleasantly, knowing that cooking for an entire Kingdom would lend even more energy and industry to Shareef’s realization of one of his personal dreams.

“I suppose so.” Shareef replied flatly, in a tone completely outside of his usual bright and cheerful demeanor.

“Shareef, My darling, whatever is the matter, sweetheart?” Felice asked gently.

“I’m sorry Mom, I don’t mean to be downcast. I’m so happy for all of us. But I can’t help thinking about those of us who have lost people close to them.”

“Including you, My sweet and sensitive brother.” Felicity said gently as she rose from where she sat and fluttered over to take Shareef’s hands into her own.

“I’m sorry for sounding so selfish on such a happy day, Family Mine.”

“Nonsense. You are perfectly Right, Shareef.” The surprising interjection came from King Louis, who looked at Shareef with warm and sympathetic blue eyes as he spoke. “Rebuilding and healing means allowing people to grieve, too, My Lad, You’re quite right. We have to think about both joy and sorrow on this day.”

“Your Majesty, may I request a Royal Indulgence?” Shareef spoke up quietly.

“You have but to name it, Sir Shareef of Bonta. Without your Service there would be no Bonta at all.” King Louis replied sounding both regal and somber.

“I wish the use of one of Your Majesty’s Ships.” Shareef asked quietly.

“Services for your former Captain?” King Louis asked.

“If you please, Your Majesty.” Shareef replied.

“Granted, with all of our heart, Shareef. For Bonta also owes Captain Soames a debt of gratitude as well as you do yourself.”

“How so, Sire?” Shareef asked with a note of quiet surprise.

“We never came to know him, more is the pity.” King Louis answered. “But in giving his own life, he brought you to us, and for that, All of Bonta should be justly grateful.”

“My everlasting thanks and loyalty, Your Majesty.” Said Shareef as his voice broke at last, and Shareef felt himself swept into King Louis’ embrace, where his Monarch and his friend held him close as Shareef wept.

“It is all right, My Boy. Events will now allow us to do right by your friend, and whatever you and others need who have lost friends and loved ones will be given you, to help you cope with your loss. That was my promise to all Bonta, and it extends to our family as well.” King Louis told Shareef in a quiet solemn but sympathetic tone.

“Forgive me, King Louis. I did not expect to show weakness to my new family and homeland.”

“Caring for and about your friends is a strength beyond steel, my Boy. And that you care as much as you and your brother do, shows all of us the new strength you bring to Bonta.”

“If Your Majesty will permit, I shall carry this news to my Shipmates. They have taken lodgings aboard their new ship pending the construction of housing for our Navy.”

“Go on Shareef, Cici spoke up. “Take Shane with you. He’s due to be relieved any moment now. I think he would enjoy your company again.”

Shareef nodded, some of the natural brightness returning to his eyes as the tears melted away. Shibu held his place near to the King for the moment after a Ranger hand sign from his brother. This was another page in the book of his past that Shibu understood as having to be written by Shareef alone.

Shareef executed a quick and nearly silent exit, once more using the soft steps he had learned from watching Shibu.

The truth of the great doors of the tower showed themselves again as Shareef discovered much to his surprise that he could move them like any interior door within the halls of the Castle. Two fingers, well placed and balanced, set Shareef free again. There was a spring in his step once more as he felt the sun and the kiss of a rising morning wind on his face. They seemed to work together to erase his melancholy, and by the time another set of silent footsteps joined his own, Shareef could manage a smile of greeting again. 

“A Hail and bright morning, Sir Shareef.” Shane said, as the lad of nearly his own age was consumed by an uncomfortable formality as the two met a second time.

“I’m just Shibu and you’re just Shane.” Shareef instructed lightly. “I go to pay a call to the crew of my rebuilt vessel. You would honor me with your companionship, as you have done so well in days just past.”

“As you wish, Friend Shareef, but this time let us trace a seagoing trail that will allow us to miss the brandy.” Shane replied, trying to force away a partial smile as he replied to Shareef.

“No need to run up a hazard flag there, Shane. We will make our course this time for the opposite end of the Harbor, wherein now lay the dockyards for the Bontarian Navy.” Shareef explained as the pair made a swift flowing walk equal at the step toward the Port of Bonta.

The Port itself and the docks beyond were surprisingly quiet. On most days, with twenty or more ships fitting out, the yards were among the busiest places in The White City.

The thin, almost bloodless gob who was holding down the harbor Masters office this time was nothing like the great burly mass of Josiah, the rum sloshing friend to Captain Soames.

But the spare swabbie was friendly and chattered like a well behaved parrot when the subject of Mendoza was mentioned. In exchange for a few paltry Kama, the landlocked sailor gladly gave out full and colorful details of what had happened just a few hours before. The man seemed more like a tourist guide than a working Man of the Sea. Both Shareef and Shane were smart enough to be social and listen, collecting every word of information which their spare change had purchased.

Every slip in yard was full. That had happened when most of Mendoza’s former squadron had seen sense, along with a tower of blue light. All but a few of the ships had struck their colors as their crews begged to become prisoners rather than casualties.

The very first battle sortie of the Bontarian Navy had been to take most of the vessels in Mendoza’s fleet in tow as prizes, and to intern their crews until the legal system could sort out seven-hundred and more men who had simply dropped their arms overboard, and lined up on every square foot of deck space, waiting to be taken quietly into custody. 

Happily, The Gypsy Star II occupied her very same slip as she had when Shareef and Shane had come aboard dressed as sailors to fool the eyes of Mendoza’s spotters just beyond the breakwater. But now they were gone, as were the trio of blockade ships on a thick cable which had sealed off the Harbor itself. Shane and Shareef were recognized at once by the deck watch and waved aboard, to quickly vanish below decks and into the newly rebuilt and far more opulent Captain’s Stateroom. 

“Ahoy, Mister Steptoe, Request permission to enter the Captain’s quarters, Sir.” Shareef recited with a snappy salute as soon as he saw the thin, dark-skinned figure hunched over the huge desk, obviously deep in thought.

Steptoe looked up and smiled broadly at the sight of his shipmate, and a familiar guest.

“Welcome Home, Mister Shareef!” Steptoe drawled sociably. “Glad to see your colors still flying after three days and nights of skies as blue as river water.”

“How stands the Star and her Crew?” Shareef asked, a bit more formally.

“We’ll be ready for sea again, as quick as Captain Gall’ger can testify to the Inquest about Mendoza. He be in the City now, ta palaver with one of those legal sharks.”

“I wanted to tell his crew and my own crew first.” Shareef began. “We finally made arrangements for Captain Soames, and I’d like the Star to lead the service at sea.” 

That bit of news brought a refreshed smile to Steptoe’s weather-beaten features, along with tears to his dark eyes. “Of our whole Company, I knew you would not forget, Mister Shareef. He was never the sort to say it uploud, but Captain Soames ranked you among the best of us.”

“I know, Mister Steptoe, and I rank each and every one of our company as high as I rank him still.” As Shareef spoke a rumble of gravel edged his voice.

Shane was at Shareef’s back and clapped a steady hand onto Shareef’s shoulder. Shareef swallowed with difficulty, and then he went on.

“Eight bells, on the high tide, tomorrow, If you Please, Mister Steptoe.” Shareef concluded as Mister Steptoe pulled a course bit of cloth from his pocket, and after wiping his own tears, he offered it to Shareef.

“As you say, Mister Shareef.” Steptoe answered at last. “We will hoist the signal to the fleet, Sir. Along with Captain Soames personal ensign.”

“I believe he would like that very much! Thank you, First Officer Steptoe.”

“Welcome you will ev’er be aboard The Star, Mister Shareef.”

“Thank you, Sir.” Shareef answered. “If you please sir, I would do one more turn for my good shipmates.”

“And what might that be, Mister Shareef?” Steptoe asked.

“Allow me to lay below, and I’ll make supper for the entire crew before the shore party assembles to bring Captain Soames aboard.”

“That t’would be a fine gesture, Lad.” Steptoe replied. “For I’ll bet that no man jack of us will be able to eat with our throats closed up so tight and dry as eight bells sounds.”

Walking back toward the Tower from the Harbor, Shane could both see and feel that Shareef was troubled. The young Ranger decided that solitude was best for deep thought and deep feelings. The last thing Shane wanted to do was make his friend hurt any more than he did as the two drew closer to the castle.

“Shareef, Sir?” Shane asked quietly.

“Yes, Shane Sadiq?”

“How do you ask to be someone’s friend, in your own language”” Shane wanted to know.

“You just did, Sadiq.”

Shane smiled. “At least I managed to do that much right.” Shane confessed. “I didn’t want to hurt or to bother you.”

“Thank you, My Friend. I admire you as well.” Shareef replied.

“If you ever need someone to talk to, I know you have Sir Shibu and all, but..” 

“Friends are the greatest form of both respect and riches, Shane Sadiq. I welcome your council and your concern.”

“Thank you, Shareef Sadiq.” Shane replied simply.

Shareef smiled. He had found another who was both sharp, and wicked fast. Bonta would have much need of both qualities in the days to come.

“I’ve got the next shift on the door. But I bet you knew that already. If you need me, that’s where I’ll be.”

“The more Rangers we have, the closer at hand, the better stands Bonta, Sadiq.” Shareef replied with a typical bright white smile.

Shane took his post on one side of the door as Shareef walked thru the arch with a keen salute for the new guard.

Shareef portaled upward, skipping his usual climb of the serpentine iron staircase.

As he landed in the Common Room, Shibu was close enough so that both brothers could share a warm hug, and a nose rub.

“Are you all right, Sweet, silver and handsome? Shibu asked, snuggled deeply for a moment into his brother. Shareef relaxed almost to the point of being limp in his Brother’s arms. Shibu picked Shareef up off of the floor and into his arms basket style, without any remarkable physical effort.

The warm light in Shareef’s green eyes spoke his wish to remain there, and the two brothers made for the center of the broad room, where Shibu had made a unique mark on one of the white marble stones.

Shibu’s portal formed for the both of them without any accessory thought or special motion. Their next step together was into the catacombs, many hundreds of feet below the White castle, and many more years back in time.

It was there that Shibu set Sharif back on his feet gently.

“I have a surprise for you, quick and silver.” Shibu said playfully.

Shareef’s somewhat downcast attitude left him at once. In a place like this, when Shibu mentioned surprises, Shareef had to find himself ready for anything.

“As good as you look wearing my silks , I know you've wanted your own colors all along." Shibu told his brother with a slightly mischievous smile.

“Only so the citizens of Bonta could tell us one from another, my sweet brother.”

“While I was down here, doing some more research for the Tower of Light, I happen to lean too heavily on what I thought was another section of wall in the cavern.” Shibu explained casually as the brothers walked along in the Cavern space awash in a subdued blue light.

“As I leaned into them, they had a surprise for me, as things turned out. They pushed me back!” Shibu said simply.

“Pushed you back?” Shareef answered, showing his own touch of surprise.

“Yep-Yep!” Shibu replied amiably. “And then I thought of something I hadn't before. Maybe I got pushed back because my energy wasn't an exact match for the stones. It’s almost as if..” Shibu begin.

“Almost as if that set of stones was meant for another Eliotrope! Shareef filled in quickly.

“That's exactly what I thought. Then I thought about getting you down here, so you could have a try.”

“Please show me, brother Shibu. Sharif replied on a rising note of excitement.

“Right this way, brother mine. I think you may hold the key to this particular room of mystery.”

Sharif took Shibu’s hand, and led him through the blue stone Caverns. The two of them walked in silence amid the frescoes done by their people in ages past. Along one edge of a very colorfully inscribed section of the ancient wall, the density and pattern of the artistic lines became much more complex. The pattern changed from a series of almost child-like illustrations to a far more intricate pattern, cut far more deeply into the energetic blue stones which preserved Eliotrope history.

Sharif noticed something else about the unusual wall which now surrounded both brothers on two sides.

The usually energetic blue stones were not only warm to the touch, but they admitted enough heat to warm the pair of Eliotropes as they stood close enough to admire pattern cut into the stones.

“Watch.” Shibu said simply.

The red and silver Eliotrope Guardian extended both palms toward the stones of the wall, where the pattern indicated was the center of the carving.

There was a biting crackle, almost like a growl from Ahki, and Sharif watched both in fascination and alarm, as the power emanating from the carving on the wall seemed to intensify and with a burst of radiant energy, forced Shibu two full steps backward, and away from the wall!

Undaunted, Shibu stepped forward once more, with a more determined attitude and posture. This time, the Guardian’s actions were Swift and Powerful, as if Shibu had determined to lay hands on the carving, in spite of its energetic rejection.

The ancient stones seemed to meet force with force, and Shibu was pushed back again with a speed and resolution equal to the force which he had attempted to apply.

Shibu dropped his hands to his sides, and then stood back a step for Shareef. “Give it a try brother.” Shibu said simply. “It doesn't seem to like me very much. Maybe it will like you better.”

Sharif nodded slowly, glancing with trepidation from his powerful Draconic brother to the intimidating carving that seemed to possess an almost feral intelligence.

Sharif copied his brother’s technique, extending his palms towards the center point of intricate carving. He braced with his legs, fully expecting to be pushed back and away from the stones. But as Sheriff's wide open palms drew near the carving, Shibu noticed the blue energy of Wakfu begin to change color slightly.

For just a moment, there was a trace of red among the flowing sweep of blue. The change in energy mingled with a blue coloration, changing after just a moment to a shade of green which Shibu noticed matched the color of Sharif’s eyes.

The subdued blue green light was nothing like Sharif had ever seen before. to his amazement, the stones in the intricately carved wall seemed to begin moving and rearranging themselves. There was no ominous sound a cracking or crumbling, nothing whatsoever to save in the surrounding Cavern had been weakened, and showed no sign of crumbling.

As the lines of the ancient carving realigned themselves, they began to absorb the blend of unusual light and the energy being generated by Shareef. The energize lines created a new pattern between themselves on the ancient wall, stones began to slide back, and out of the way, revealing another new room within the cavern space.

While Shareef looked on dumbfounded, no one was happier for this unusual turn of events than the red and silver clad figure standing beside Sharif.

“I knew you could do it!” Shibu said it's happy confidence ringing in his voice. He dropped an arm over Shareef’s shoulder to break what was truly a magic spell we should men cast upon his brother.

“Well, go on in, Sharif. it's your room.”

Shareef' could manage only a slightly perplexed smile which gave Shibu a light moment of laughter.

For Sharif, Who could not help but notice that the blue green mystical space head seem to appear from between sections of wall, there was a moment of natural hesitation.

But Sharif had learned enough about the mystical blue Cavern to understand if this was space that belonged to his people. He had never had any sense that anything or anyplace in the cavern would do him harm.

So Shareef took a moment to relax before walking forward a half dozen steps, and into the space of the new blue room itself.

The arrangement of this room was quite different from the one would Shibu had discovered for himself not far away.

The contents of this room seemed to be a welter of various unrelated objects, most of which showed evidence of being simply piled into the space without any sort of reason or grand plan of style or function.

Yet, here and there, there were shapes and objects which stirred Shareef’s deepest memories as his vivid green eyes flickered about the strange room.

Sharif knelt here and there, to gently examine some of the more carefully folded bolts of colorful material with a more experienced hand. He had seen these before. They were as common as flat stones in a riverbed among the great Caravans which formed the memories of his youth.

In one corner of the room, turned up on end, rather than taking up space in the floor, Shareef could see a series of thick iron bars, and round black iron discs. Many of these were bigger around than both of his hands, and each about as thick as his finger. There was also an odd trio of heavy bags, Larger, medium, and smaller, the last one closer to Shareef’s own size. They were made of heavy canvas sailcloth, and filled with common white sand. Rolled up tightly and set against the walls were mats of all sizes and shapes. Shareef had seen these before, too. Mats like these were like those in the secluded island temple where he had spent six months training with--

“Marco!” Shareef said out loud, his voice cracking with pure emotion as Shareef recalled another much more personal memory from his past.

“Are you all right, Shareef?” Shibu asked with visible worry as he portaled quickly into the room to stand alongside Shareef.

“No, Brother, I am not!” Shareef answered his voice quivering in time with his body, which was now shaking violently! “Take me from this place now, Please Shibu!”

Shibu moved as only he could, with Draconic swiftness and strength!

Instantly a Portal surrounded both of them, and in a moment, Shibu and Shareef were standing on and then laying down gently together on the great round bed the two of them shared.

Shibu was scared to feel Shareef clawing at him, in a panic that drove Shareef to a frantic closeness to his brother!

Shibu took a loving hold on Shareef, bundling his brother into his arms protectively as Shareef’s moment of sheer terror ebbed away with frightful slowness, as cold as the approach of death itself.

“I have you, my sweet brother.” Shibu whispered with a steady, solid bravery that Shareef needed so much at that moment.

“Oh, Shibu, My Sweet Shibu!” Shareef said, still shaking profoundly in his brothers arms. “My past has found me, and my shame returns to haunt me!”

“Easy and Slow, Brother Mine. I will defend you against anything and anyone, if needs be. Now, you must begin at the beginning, and tell me all.” Shibu told the frightened, shrunken figure who had taken refuge in his arms. “Who has made this monster called Marco, and why do you bear such terror of him?” Shibu asked, not forcing the question, but granting Shareef a protected and secure space in which he could deal with his own memories again.

Slowly, literally a single word at a time, Shareef talked to Shibu, all thru the rest if that day, and long into the night.

When the soft and gentle light of dawn came to and through the tower windows, both were still awake, but the sudden wedge of sheer terror between them had melted away like the waning starlight.

After extracting a promise of absolute secrecy from Shibu, Shareef found himself able to stand again, and the pair of brothers ate breakfast that morning without a word spoken between them.

Then, Shareef dressed in Shibu’s spare set of silks, and in the uncomfortably bright light of a sullen morning, the pair of Brothers traveled on foot to the Bonta docks, where time itself seemed determined to heap tragedy upon Shareef.

For no day upon which you bury someone could be called a happy day.

The somber roll of muffled drums echoed mournfully over the bay. The solemn sound seemed to catch in the rocky cliff that was one side of the Tower the brothers called home. The sound of sadness seemed for a moment to roll off of the white stones of Bonta Castle and return to the fleet of ships like a wave of sobbing voices.

When the long roll ceased at last, there was a moment of contrasting quiet so deep that the only sound which could be clearly heard across the bay and harbor was the quiet fluttering of the Bontarian banners which flew from the mainmast of every ship.

On the deck of his newly commissioned flagship, Kink Louis IV of Bonta cast a sympathetic glance at Shareef, nodding tightly to Shibu's brother.

Shibu gently let go of his Brother's hand, allowing Shareef to rise slowly from where he sat, closest to the simple white wooden casket.  
Shareef walked with a heavy laden step to stand close to a small dias wreathed in black bunting. Shibu was not the only one among the mourners to see Shareef take an extra moment to steady himself , leaning against the small dais, upon which Shareef placed a pair of clearly shaking hands.

It took an extra moment for the red and silver clad Eliotrope to swallow his own grief, and make the effort of speech in the honor of his former Captain and mentor.

“Ship's company, up stand!” Shareef ordered in a subdued but clear voice.

In well practiced obedience, the entire crew of the flagship rose, and stood on deck, as they too became part of a united crew for Captain Soams.

“We gather here today to see an old Sailor home to the sea.” Shareef began slowly, drawing a deep breath before pushing forward with both words and emotions. “Captain Elias Soames here rejoins a host of those whom he called shipmates and friends, all gone to a mariner's rest before him.” Shareef continued, looking up and away from the notes , to better let the words and the sorrow flow out from his heart. “For we who knew him, and sailed under his commend and in his company, we have lost a fine Captain, and a better shipmate, who made us all better, and richer people, not in treasure alone, for the adventures we shared.”

Shareef bowed his head for a moment, to let the tears flow out of his green eyes. He had promised himself not to cry for the sake of his Captain and friend, but he found no energy inside himself that would stop the honest sorrow that he felt in that moment.

“He came to Bonta on the teeth of a storm, and put all of his lifetime of work onto a shoal to save the crew he valued beyond any treasure-Even his own silver cup of fond memory.” Shareef told the assembly. “We, the ship's company of his Gypsy Star owe him our very lives. His last orders to us were to be good Men of the Sea, and always to sail under his flag, as he would never leave us. We bind ourselves this day to a promise that we shall always obey his final orders.” Shareef said his voice gaining strength as he looked up at his shipmates.

“Aye-Aye, Sir!” the Gypsy Star's company replied in a single voice.

“We here commit his body to the timeless sea, knowing that we shall all meet once more in a place where the day is always clear, the wind is full and fair, and the sea calls us all once again to adventure under the flag of our good and just Captain.”

Shareef fell silent for a moment, forcing himself to swallow against a swollen throat that now fought him for every spoken word.

“Mister Galliger, are the cannons ready?” Shareef asked the familiar figure at the corner of the formation square on the quarterdeck.

“Laid and ready, as ordered, Mister Shareef.” Came the quiet answer from the old hand who had been First under Captain Soames.

“Ship's Company, Hand Salute!” Mister Galliger called out.

On her quarterdeck, The crew complement of the Gypsy Star snapped to a formal attention. As they did so, eighteen twelve pound cannon, nine to port and nine to starboard, ripple fired, along with three swivel guns mounted up forward in the bow of the new ship, sending a twenty-one gun solute rolling across the bay like another sort of thunderstorm, quite different from the one that had claimed both their good ship and her gallant captain.

Once the sound of the salute passed away over the waves, Shareef stepped to the side of the small platform, where he was joined by Mister Galliger, who stepped down from his place with the crew on the quarterdeck.

Shareef braced himself on the top right hand corner of the mess table upon which the wooden casket lay, while Mister Galliger took hold of the top left hand corner of the long table. The two who knew Soames best shared a nod, and then, together they lifted up at the corners, tilting the mess table upward to a steep slant.

Shareef could not watch as the plain wooden casket slid off of the table and over the side, weighted as it was with four twelve pound cannonballs, and into and beneath the water with a surprisingly gentle splash.

From high up in the crow's nest, a bosun's pipe sounded two long notes, and then a bugle played a short and somber song known well to any Man of the Sea.

The notes of Last Call broke Shareef deep inside, and it was the hardest fight of his life to hold his composure until the last note of the bugle's call was done.

Mister Galliger, now Captain Galliger, saw Shareef’s ongoing battle, and dropped two gentle hands onto Shareef’s shoulders, standing behind Shareef to give the next orders.

“Ship’s Company, On Hats!” Captain Galliger ordered.

The entire crew of the new vessel, a full two score, stood in two identical rows along the main deck, at the command, twenty clean, white beret-style caps, each trimmed with a flash of wakfu blue ribbon, adorned the crew.

“Ship’s Company Dismissed.” Captain Galliger snapped. “Second officer take charge of the Special detail, First Watch set the Sea Detail!”

“Aye-Aye, Sir!” Forty voices rang out. Captain Galliger was surprised to hear one particular voice, now full and strong, from close quarters.

“All Correct, Second Officer Shareef?” Captain Galliger asked officially.

“Aye, Sir, All correct!”Shareef responded, as smart as a whip. “Request Permission to go ashore with the Royal Party, Sir!”

“Permission Granted, Mister Shareef!” Captain Galliger replied as the pair exchanged salutes.

“Thank you, My Captain. I beg to report that supper is on for all three watches and yourself in the Galley, Sir!”

“Well done, and thank you, lad.” Captain Galliger replied more informally.

“The full ship’s Company will expect to see you at the Grand Reception for the Royal Wedding, provided, of course that you can be spared from Special Duty in the Royal Kitchens.”

Shareef glanced from his Captain to his King, and saw Louis and Felice gently holding hands at the forward rail, both looking far out into a placid sea, the sparkling waters were lit by a bright warm noonday sun.

Then, Shareef felt a familiar hand slip into his own in much the same fashion.

“If you’ll pardon us Captain, the two of us have much to do, and in far less time than we once believed.” Shibu told Captain Galliger, and adding a regulation salute to his report.

“Fair winds to both of Bonta’s newest Knights, from the Bontarian Navy, Sirs Shibu and Shareef.”

This time, it was Shareef who saluted, and as he brought his hand down once more, Shareef cast a large portal. Both of them stepped into and thru the circle of blue light, and the pair of brothers were on their way to their next adventure.

One that would atone for a past unwanted and ungoverned but survived none the less, and free a pair of conjoined souls to live life again, rather than live in terror of it.


End file.
